PORTSMOUTH — When police officials received complaints four years ago about Sgt. Aaron Goodwin’s involvement with an elderly woman, who later left the officer most of her $2.7 million estate, the only person they interviewed was Goodwin.
That’s according to a deposition of police Capt. Frank Warchol, taken as part of a probate court dispute over the last will and trust for the late Geraldine Webber. Goodwin denies allegations in the county probate court that he exerted undue influence over Webber, while she had dementia, to inherit her wealth.
During Warchol’s March 2 deposition, he said he was assigned to assemble two police memos and a timeline written by Goodwin, into an investigatory format, then “sign off on it.” He said the assignment came from former police chief “Lou” Ferland and that he didn’t interview anyone other than Goodwin “under the specific guidelines of Chief Ferland.”
“It’s not how we normally do (redacted from the deposition transcript) but that’s how the chief decided he wanted to have it done at that time,” Warchol said.
The police captain said one complaint was made in late 2010 to former deputy chief Corey MacDonald and it alleged Goodwin “improperly conveyed his authority to obtain special privileges in the matter as it relates to Geraldine Webber.” Warchol elaborated that the complaining party (whose name is redacted from the deposition) alleged Goodwin accepted “some gifts” from Webber and also later made a “very vague” complaint to Ferland about Goodwin’s “behavior toward” the elderly woman.
Warchol said he met with Goodwin on Feb. 15, 2011, but wouldn’t characterize that meeting as an interview because he only asked Goodwin one question; if he had anything to add to a timeline he wrote for his supervisors. Goodwin’s timeline detailed his interactions with Webber, but did not include that Webber told him on Christmas Eve 2010 that she wanted to give him her house, a fact he disclosed during his own deposition.
Warchol said Goodwin told him he had nothing to add to the timeline which was ”cut and pasted” into his report that was endorsed by now-Chief Stephen DuBois. Also included in the report was a Jan. 17, 2011, memo by MacDonald which described Goodwin’s regular visits to Webber as “the type of community policing that we encourage our officers to engage in on a daily basis.”
MacDonald recently said that at that time, Goodwin “had received an old stuffed bunny and some toy cars as gifts for his children from Ms. Webber.”
“I did not feel these items were evidence of some greater scheme or bad conduct,” he said.
Warchol confirmed during his deposition last month that he checked a box on the report he assembled that indicated the original complaint against Goodwin was “not sustained.” He explained that meant “the information that we had was not enough to see that (Goodwin) was in violation of any of our SOPS” (standard operating procedures).
Warchol said he also concluded that Goodwin “extended his services that went beyond the average, everyday police officer which eventually turned into a personal friendship. This extension was in no way an effort to glean any type of reward, gratuity or furtherance of a personal financial gain…”
The police captain said that conclusion was based on information he had at the time and that it was not his job to investigate anything.
“My job was to take those memos and put them into the format and based on the memos that I had in front of me and the information read off of those memos is how I came to my conclusions on my insight and analysis,” he said.
Warchol also acknowledged that at that time, he “had no idea” Webber had told Goodwin she wanted to change her will to give Goodwin her house. He said he learned about Goodwin’s inheritance in February or March of 2011 from MacDonald.
“I do remember him saying something to the effect that Aaron was going to be left a house by some old woman,” he said.
Warchol said it wasn’t his job to add the information about the inheritance to the report he’d compiled about Goodwin and that he was never instructed to do so by Ferland or DuBois. He also said, “I was not assigned to investigate Aaron Goodwin.”
According to Warchol, he also added to the report some information obtained by Capt. Mike Schwartz, from the attorney general’s office, that said the AG would not be investigating the complaints against Goodwin because they did not involve a crime.
In a Feb. 2011 email, which is part of the probate court case, Schwartz wrote to Warchol, DuBois and MacDonald that, “At some point I suspect the department and our actions in this matter will be highly scrutinized.” To that end, Schwartz advised in the email, “we should format our documentation as an IA (internal investigation). If this matter looked the same as the four IAs before it and the four IAs that follow it, we look consistent, which is a big part of this.”
During his deposition, Warchol acknowledged that his report also contained allegations against Webber’s longtime lawyer, James Ritzo. He said he never investigated those allegations in an effort to substantiate them because that was not the focus of his job.
The probate case is scheduled to go to trial later this month and to coincide with the release of a report from an independent panel assigned to investigate the police department’s role in the matter.
Attribution:
Cop’s relationship with $2.7M beneficiary wasn’t investigated
Orders came from top, police captain says in deposition
Elizabeth Dinan
April 8, 2015
SeaCoastOnline.com
http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20150408/NEWS/150409172/101098/NEWS
That’s according to a deposition of police Capt. Frank Warchol, taken as part of a probate court dispute over the last will and trust for the late Geraldine Webber. Goodwin denies allegations in the county probate court that he exerted undue influence over Webber, while she had dementia, to inherit her wealth.
During Warchol’s March 2 deposition, he said he was assigned to assemble two police memos and a timeline written by Goodwin, into an investigatory format, then “sign off on it.” He said the assignment came from former police chief “Lou” Ferland and that he didn’t interview anyone other than Goodwin “under the specific guidelines of Chief Ferland.”
“It’s not how we normally do (redacted from the deposition transcript) but that’s how the chief decided he wanted to have it done at that time,” Warchol said.
The police captain said one complaint was made in late 2010 to former deputy chief Corey MacDonald and it alleged Goodwin “improperly conveyed his authority to obtain special privileges in the matter as it relates to Geraldine Webber.” Warchol elaborated that the complaining party (whose name is redacted from the deposition) alleged Goodwin accepted “some gifts” from Webber and also later made a “very vague” complaint to Ferland about Goodwin’s “behavior toward” the elderly woman.
Warchol said he met with Goodwin on Feb. 15, 2011, but wouldn’t characterize that meeting as an interview because he only asked Goodwin one question; if he had anything to add to a timeline he wrote for his supervisors. Goodwin’s timeline detailed his interactions with Webber, but did not include that Webber told him on Christmas Eve 2010 that she wanted to give him her house, a fact he disclosed during his own deposition.
Warchol said Goodwin told him he had nothing to add to the timeline which was ”cut and pasted” into his report that was endorsed by now-Chief Stephen DuBois. Also included in the report was a Jan. 17, 2011, memo by MacDonald which described Goodwin’s regular visits to Webber as “the type of community policing that we encourage our officers to engage in on a daily basis.”
MacDonald recently said that at that time, Goodwin “had received an old stuffed bunny and some toy cars as gifts for his children from Ms. Webber.”
“I did not feel these items were evidence of some greater scheme or bad conduct,” he said.
Warchol confirmed during his deposition last month that he checked a box on the report he assembled that indicated the original complaint against Goodwin was “not sustained.” He explained that meant “the information that we had was not enough to see that (Goodwin) was in violation of any of our SOPS” (standard operating procedures).
Warchol said he also concluded that Goodwin “extended his services that went beyond the average, everyday police officer which eventually turned into a personal friendship. This extension was in no way an effort to glean any type of reward, gratuity or furtherance of a personal financial gain…”
The police captain said that conclusion was based on information he had at the time and that it was not his job to investigate anything.
“My job was to take those memos and put them into the format and based on the memos that I had in front of me and the information read off of those memos is how I came to my conclusions on my insight and analysis,” he said.
Warchol also acknowledged that at that time, he “had no idea” Webber had told Goodwin she wanted to change her will to give Goodwin her house. He said he learned about Goodwin’s inheritance in February or March of 2011 from MacDonald.
“I do remember him saying something to the effect that Aaron was going to be left a house by some old woman,” he said.
Warchol said it wasn’t his job to add the information about the inheritance to the report he’d compiled about Goodwin and that he was never instructed to do so by Ferland or DuBois. He also said, “I was not assigned to investigate Aaron Goodwin.”
According to Warchol, he also added to the report some information obtained by Capt. Mike Schwartz, from the attorney general’s office, that said the AG would not be investigating the complaints against Goodwin because they did not involve a crime.
In a Feb. 2011 email, which is part of the probate court case, Schwartz wrote to Warchol, DuBois and MacDonald that, “At some point I suspect the department and our actions in this matter will be highly scrutinized.” To that end, Schwartz advised in the email, “we should format our documentation as an IA (internal investigation). If this matter looked the same as the four IAs before it and the four IAs that follow it, we look consistent, which is a big part of this.”
During his deposition, Warchol acknowledged that his report also contained allegations against Webber’s longtime lawyer, James Ritzo. He said he never investigated those allegations in an effort to substantiate them because that was not the focus of his job.
The probate case is scheduled to go to trial later this month and to coincide with the release of a report from an independent panel assigned to investigate the police department’s role in the matter.
Attribution:
Cop’s relationship with $2.7M beneficiary wasn’t investigated
Orders came from top, police captain says in deposition
Elizabeth Dinan
April 8, 2015
SeaCoastOnline.com
http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20150408/NEWS/150409172/101098/NEWS
