By Jeanette DeForge
CHICOPEE – A 43-year-old police
officer will lose his job in connection with his alleged sexual relationship
with a 17-year-old girl.
Mayor Richard J. Kos announced
Monday he has decided to terminate Patrolman Michael Gendron following a discipline
hearing in connection to a restraining order taken out on him by the girl’s
parents.
“As a Civil Service position,
Officer Gendron will have the ability to appeal this decision to the Civil
Service Commission in Boston,” Assistant City Solicitor Thomas Rooke said in
writing.
The discipline hearing was held
behind closed doors Thursday, a week after a judge extended a restraining order
against Gendron that calls for him to stay away from the girl, prohibits him
from possessing a firearm and bans him from her school and workplace.
“The mayor believes and has
stated in the past that police officers are held to a higher standard and even
though the relationship is legal, it fell below the standards of what the mayor
believes a Chicopee Police officer should be doing off duty,” Rooke said.
He declined to comment further
on the decision.
Gendron was suspended without
pay this summer after the girl’s mother filed for a restraining order saying
she came home early one day in the summer to find Gendron and the girl naked
together.
"I'm sure my clients will
be pleased," said Daniel D. Kelly, the lawyer who represents the girl's
family. He said he had little to do with the disciplinary hearing.
During the hearing requesting
the restraining order, a lawyer for Gendron did not deny his client's
relationship with the girl, but argued it was not illegal and not grounds for a
restraining order. The age of consent in Massachusetts is 16.
Gendron's lawyer, John Jerzyk,
of Springfield, did not immediately return calls for comment.
Kos had the sole authority to
rescind or extend the suspension or fire Gendron.
A two-paragraph statement from
the mayor’s office did not specify under what grounds Kos chose to fire the
officer.
