Embattled police officer still on paid leave amid probe, supervisor says
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. >> Embattled part-time town police Officer Phillip Sinagra has been on paid administrative leave since May 2023, and remained on paid leave Wednesday, town Supervisor Bill McKenna said.
“I don’t have any comment at this time. … Let me have a conversation with my attorney, the town attorney. And give me a call back in a couple of days,” McKenna said when asked about the progress or result of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigation into allegations by four Woodstock police officers and a former dispatcher. The employees alleged that the department had tolerated sexually inappropriate comments by Police Chief Clayton Keefe, and racist and sexually charged comments by Sinagra.
The officers also claimed that Keefe retaliated against them when complaints were lodged internally.
Keefe has not returned phone calls from the Freeman requesting an update on the investigation. Asked in June about Sinagra’s paid administrative leave, he said that administrative leave for Sinagra “is not discipline.”
Keefe remains active on the force, McKenna said, along with the four police officers who lodged the complaints. “The dispatcher left and I don’t know where she ended up going,” McKenna said.
A Freedom of Information request from the Freeman to the EEOC for the outcome of a formal filing made in June was met with a denial. In a letter dated Feb. 13, an EEOC spokesperson said the information requested is “exempted from disclosure by statute.” In November, a Commission spokesperson wrote to the Freeman stating, “Under federal law, possible charges (complaints) made to the EEOC are confidential, and we are prohibited from releasing any information, or confirming or denying their existence.”
“Confidentiality rules apply even if someone who files a charge with the EEOC subsequently files suit on their own, with or without a private attorney. This information can become public, which normally happens if and when the EEOC files suit in federal court. In these instances we will issue a press release to our newsroom.”
A search Wednesday of the EEOC newsroom website found no record of filings or suits involving Woodstock.
A state Freedom of Information request for information on the investigation from Woodstock was met in December 2023 with an email response stating, “Nothing to update or report.”
The five-page complaint was filed in May 2023 in the commission’s New York district office and outlined complaints over the past three years. It contends that officers Brian Williams, Tiffany Croizer and Gabrielle Lilima, Sgt. Adam McGrath and former dispatcher Michelle Sullivan were subject to actions “aimed at dissuading them from lodging further complaints.”
In the complaint, Croizer reported being subjected to “pejorative comments” when breastfeeding in 2020 and forced to express milk in an unheated storeroom and in unsanitary conditions.
The complaint added that comments from Keefe included saying “who is she to be in here flapping them out.” Croizer was allegedly not put on shift schedules and was denied the opportunity to take firearms training, according to the complaint.
Lilima is reported to have been subject to “many threatening and sexual comments” from Sinagra. The complaint states he has “expressed his intention to attempt to see Officer Lilima naked in the locker room” as part of comments made to co-workers, and after a complaint was made to Keefe, she and Sinagra were allegedly scheduled to work an increased level of time together.
The complaint contends that Williams was subjected to retaliation for reporting Sinagra’s alleged comments, which allegedly included him saying he wanted to “hate-f**k” the female co-worker.
Sullivan, who in March resigned as dispatcher, was also reported to have been subjected to retaliation for reporting similar comments where Sinagra is alleged to say he wanted to “skull-f**k” the officer. She added that there was also a racial component to interactions.
“She complained that she had heard (Sinagra) refer to an African American officer as a ‘niglet,’” the complaint states.
According to the complaint, Sullivan was effectively forced to resign after being told “that she will not be considered for even parttime work” with Woodstock police.