Review Clears Police Chief
Investigator Urges Policy Changes
WINDSOR — An independent review into the actions of Windsor Police Chief Donald Melanson regarding a dashcam video from February has found that he did not violate department policies or state statutes.
However, the review did find that Melanson should have preserved the tape once he became aware that the victim of the crash had complained about an officer’s actions related to it. The outside investigator also recommended that the department review and consider making changes to its retention policies. The chief had allowed the video to be purged from a storage system by a vendor the department hired.
Melanson said Tuesday that he thought the report was fair and showed that allegations related to his actions were not true. He also said the department planned to address shortfalls in its retention policies.
The review was conducted by the Marcum Advisory Group. The purged video was from the car in which Officer Michael Tustin was riding.
Tustin was the subject of the civilian complaint filed by Cristina Santos, a former board of education president, who claimed Tustin held a political bias against her and that it clouded his handling of the investigation into the Feb. 1 crash.
Tustin is a Republican member of
the town council. Santos was elected to the school board as a Republican but eventually switched her party affiliation to Democrat.
On Feb. 5 Santos complained to Melanson and town officials about Tustin’s investigation, specifically about his decision to give the other driver a verbal warning instead of a ticket.
According to the review, Melanson viewed both videos from the scene on Feb. 6. On Feb. 14, he told Santos that he believed Tustin acted appropriately and that she may file a formal complaint.
Tustin was cleared by the department.The department determined that his investigation was consistent with other traffic investigations he had conducted.
On April 4, Santos informed Melanson and town officials that she would be filing a formal complaint.
On April 5, Melanson viewed both videos and determined that the one from Sgt. William Priester’s dashcam had evidentiary value but the one from Tustin’s car did not. Melanson activated the “prevent purge” switch in the Priester video, but not in the Tustin video.
The Tustin video was purged from the system on May 3. Santos filed a formal complaint on May 22. The officer assigned to investigate the complaint determined that the video had been purged on May 28.
During the review, investigators learned that the officer in the car with Tustin was wearing a body microphone and that several officers who reviewed the tape that was allowed to be purged could hear him utter the word “bitch.”
According to the review, at some point after arriving on the scene Tustin told the other officer in the car that he would take the investigation and stated words to the effect “she can be a real bitch. I’ll take this case.”
Melanson acknowledged that he had heard the word on the video but said there was no complaint by Santos about Tustin’s behavior, attitude or language so there was no need to preserve the video.
Tustin admitted using the word. Investigators also reviewed a claim that Melanson, who is the coach of the Northwest Catholic hockey team, covered up an underage drinking party involving some of his players. The investigators determined that the allegation was a rumor started by a teenager who heard it from a friend at the school and that the rumor eventually spread to the police department.
Mayor Donald Trinks said Tuesday that he hoped that the “rumors and water cooler talk” could stop as a result of the thorough and independent investigation.