MIDDLETOWN — The city has hired two attorneys to investigate officers’ complaints that Police Chief William McKenna attempted to acquire prescription pain medication from them.
The complaints, filed separately by Officers Gino Pulvirenti and Francesca Quaranta and retired officer David Galm, allege that McKenna, before he became chief, approached officers he knew had prescription painkillers and asked them to give him pills. According to the complaints, the officers said they complied.
Mayor Daniel Drew said Wednesday he hired attorneys James Cowdery and Thomas Murphy of the Hartford-based law firm Cowdery, Ecker & Murphy to independently investigate the allegations. Both attorneys were former federal prosecutors in Connecticut.
McKenna said Wednesday the complaints are “100 percent false.” He said he welcomes the investigation and will not allow the allegations to affect the decisions he makes as chief.
“I will not be bullied into avoiding hard decisions out of fear that it will have a negative impact on me personally,” McKenna said.
Drew and McKenna said that the complaints were made by officers with troubled histories, including one currently under investigation by the department’s internal affairs unit.
Drew confirmed reports that Pulvirenti is out on paid administrative leave while under investigation for alleged worker’s compensation violations. The mayor said Pulvirenti made his complaint after he was placed on leave.
Galm retired several years ago on a disability pension, and worked in the detective bureau while McKenna was the supervisor of the unit. Galm was removed from the bureau by McKenna, Drew confirmed.
McKenna, who was hired by the department in 1995, was promoted from captain to police chief in May 2012, and was the acting chief for about eight months before that.
“I am proud of the job that Chief McKenna and our officers have done in changing the culture of the Middletown Police Department and the work they do each day,” Drew said in a statement.
Drew said he did not give the attorneys a target completion date for the investigation.
“Middletown Police Union Local 1361 are aware of complaints made by some of our members. We have been advised by the city that outside attorneys have been hired to conduct an independent investigation. The union is assisting our members through the process,” Officer Anthony Gennaro, police union president, said in a statement.
Gennaro declined further comment.
