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Posted by: kwflatbed

Harassment alleged in romance gone bad



Billerica police Lieutenant Frank MacKenzie (right) and Officer Daniel O'Leary in their lawyer's office. The two and another officer have been on paid leave pending an internal investigation. (ROSE LINCOLN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)


By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | May 26, 2007

Strange things started happening after an office romance between two Billerica police officers soured.
Lieutenant Frank MacKenzie says mice were planted in his apartment. He said he came home to find photographs cut in half and furniture moved. Four years after the break-up, MacKenzie, 46, said stacks of offensive junk mail, including some offering advice on sexual dysfunction, continue to arrive on his doorstep daily, upsetting his new wife.
Convinced that his former girl-friend, Sergeant Cathleen Coneeny, was to blame, MacKenzie said he urged the chief to investigate last fall.
Coneeny, 42, admitted she sent junk mail to MacKenzie, but insisted that he started it. She accused him of harassing her on the job and enlisting his friend, another officer, to bombard her home with junk mail, including job applications for her late husband, upsetting her three children, according to her lawyer. She received Bible tapes, weight-loss solutions, and acne medication, the lawyer said.
What would normally have been a private spat between former lovers has become a costly issue for the town, already reeling from a $600,000 verdict against it in a prior lawsuit involving MacKenzie. The three officers have been placed on administrative leave since mid-Februar, with $4,590 in collective weekly salaries still footed by town residents.

Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...an_odd_script/

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Posted by: masscopguy

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | May 26, 2007
Strange things started happening after an office romance between two Billerica police officers soured.
Lieutenant Frank MacKenzie says mice were planted in his apartment. He said he came home to find photographs cut in half and furniture moved. Four years after the break-up, MacKenzie, 46, said stacks of offensive junk mail, including some offering advice on sexual dysfunction, continue to arrive on his doorstep daily, upsetting his new wife.


Convinced that his former girl-friend, Sergeant Cathleen Coneeny, was to blame, MacKenzie said he urged the chief to investigate last fall.
Coneeny, 42, admitted she sent junk mail to MacKenzie, but insisted that he started it. She accused him of harassing her on the job and enlisting his friend, another officer, to bombard her home with junk mail, including job applications for her late husband, upsetting her three children, according to her lawyer. She received Bible tapes, weight-loss solutions, and acne medication, the lawyer said.
What would normally have been a private spat between former lovers has become a costly issue for the town, already reeling from a $600,000 verdict against it in a prior lawsuit involving MacKenzie. The three officers have been placed on administrative leave since mid-Februar, with $4,590 in collective weekly salaries still footed by town residents.
The pranks triggered an internal probe that could result in serious consequences for MacKenzie, a 20-year veteran of the force; his friend, Officer Daniel O'Leary, 37, a 10-year veteran of the force and father of two; and Coneeny, the department's first female sergeant and one of four women on the 66-member force.
Needham lawyer Timothy M. Burke, who represents MacKenzie and O'Leary, said placing the officers on leave was "punishment in and of itself, without giving them the chance of a hearing" to defend themselves.
The three officers can't perform any detail work while on leave. MacKenzie said he's lost about $30,000 in extra earnings from overtime or details over the past few months, while O'Leary estimated his loss at $10,000.
Billerica Police Chief Daniel Rosa wouldn't disclose details of the investigation, but said he is focusing on serious allegations involving harassment, as well as possible violations of the town's sexual harassment policy that created a hostile work environment.
The Billerica Police Department was hit with a federal jury's verdict last month, ordering the town to pay $600,000 to a local family for negligently supervising its officers. In that suit, a woman alleged that after rejecting MacKenzie's romantic advances in 1991, officers harassed her and her family for years with false arrests and threats. MacKenzie was not found liable by the jury.
"It's hard after going through that trial and now this," MacKenzie said in an interview at Burke's office, where he admitted that he is embarrassed about being at the center of the two cases, but insisted he has done nothing wrong.
MacKenzie said he dated Coneeny, whose husband had died in an accident, for two years. In December 2004, after they broke up, Coneeny was caught breaking into MacKenzie's car and suspended. He was reprimanded for making a disparaging remark to Coneeny and ordered to undergo sensitivity training, though he never did.
Last fall, MacKenzie said, he offered the chief evidence that Coneeny was behind the junk mail: a subscription card, allegedly in her handwriting, ordering a company to send material to MacKenzie.


He demanded the investigation, he said, because he "just wanted the childishness to stop."
MacKenzie said he was placed on administrative leave after taking a department-ordered polygraph test, but said he never got the results and hasn't been told what evidence, if any, there is against him.
"I want a chance to clear my name," MacKenzie said, criticizing the chief for his handling of the investigation. "It's a nightmare that just won't go away."
During a telephone interview, Rosa said: "It's unfortunate that it's taken this long . . . but I'm not going to compromise an investigation just to finish this up quickly. . . . I want an investigation that's complete and correct."
Coneeny declined to discuss the case with the Globe, citing a gag order issued by the chief. But her lawyer, Douglas I. Louison, said Coneeny put her relationship with MacKenzie behind her years ago and has been the victim of harassment.
"She's a very decent person who just wants to go through life and perform her job, and I don't think these individuals have made it very easy for her," Louison said. He called the allegation that she planted mice in MacKenzie's apartment "outrageous."
"She has suffered a tremendous personal loss, and, despite it, she has managed to successfully raise three children and to advance her career with the Police Department," Louison said.
He said handwriting analysts hired by Coneeny implicated O'Leary as the writer who sent order forms to companies that sent junk mail to her.
O'Leary insists the analysts are wrong. He described Coneeny as a longtime friend and said he was shocked when told he flunked a department-ordered polygraph.
MacKenzie and O'Leary said they passed polygraphs administered by a polygrapher they hired.
"It's not an investigation; it's a witch hunt," said O'Leary, who added that he believes he has been targeted because he is a union officer and criticized the police chief as being overpaid.
The chief disputed that, saying, "This matter has absolutely nothing to do with union activity."
Town Manager Rocco J. Longo, said the chief is handling the case well. "I know he'll do a very thorough and accurate job," he said

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