Former Woodstock police chief files $5 million lawsuit

Staff report

Woodstock’s former police chief Joseph Swanson has filed a $5 million civil lawsuit against Municipal Manager Eric Duffy and five village trustees over his demotion from chief of police to patrol officer.

In addition to Duffy, Seton McIlroy, the board chair; Jeffrey Kahn, the vice chair; and fellow trustees Brenda Blakeman, Lisa Lawlor and Frank Horneck are named as individual defendants in the case filed in Vermont Superior Court in Woodstock. The Village and Town of Woodstock are also named as defendants along with Burgess Loss Prevention Associates of Lebanon, New Hampshire, in the wide-ranging 31-page lawsuit.

The lawsuit states the defendants made “extraordinary unlawful efforts” to remove Swanson as the police chief. Those actions “damaged the professional reputation of Plaintiff and caused him to suffer extreme emotional distress and economic damages,” states the lawsuit.

The lawsuit requests a judgement of $5 million “inclusive of compensatory and punitive damages against the defendants to provide full, fair and complete compensation for all past and future losses.”

A jury trial is also requested. Duffy, the village and town of Woodstock are alleged to have violated three other counts: breach of contract, wrongful discharge, and breach of covenant of good faith, the lawsuit states.