PROBE INTO NOTED CHIEF NEARS END
Lawyer: Gloucester hasn’t sought resignation
The lawyer for Gloucester police Chief Leonard Campanello said the nationally hailed cop has not been asked to resign as a still largely unexplained investigation into his “professional conduct” draws closer to a close.
“It’s coming to a conclusion soon,” attorney Terrence Kennedy said in a phone interview yesterday. “I believe they talked to everybody they need to at this point. I think they have pulled together all of the information they need.
“But I can tell you straight-out, 100 percent, nobody has asked the chief to resign,” he said.
Campanello and Gloucester Sgt. Detective Sean Connors were each placed on leave earlier this month by Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken.
The mayor also hired two outside firms to investigate what she called the “professional conduct” of each of the officers, but her office has so far refused to say what the investigations entail or how much they expect to cost the city.
Late last week, Campanello’s wife filed for divorce in Essex Probate and Family Court, citing “irretrievable breakdown.” The court papers suggested they have been separated since October 2014, but Kennedy stressed last night that the divorce proceedings have “nothing at all” to do with the probe or Campanello’s leave.
“Zero,” he said. “(His family’s) not part of this whole thing.”
Efforts to reach his wife were unsuccessful yesterday.
Her attorney also didn’t return a call for comment.
An aide to Theken said her office had no comment, pointing a Herald reporter to a statement she released last week.
Campanello gained national praise, including being honored at the White House, for spearheading a treatment-based approach to the city’s opioid problem.
In 2015, he created the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative to “bridge the gap between the police department and opioid addicts seeking recovery,” according to the group’s website. As opioid abuse runs rampant across the country, dozens of police departments nationwide have joined the group.
Campanello has also stepped aside from that initiative amid the investigation.