Glodis forged signature

Glodis warned in '93 after forging signature

Candidate says correction officer incident overblown

Richard Nangle
T&G STAFF
[email protected]

Guy W. Glodis, a Democratic candidate for sheriff, was issued a warning after forging a superior officer's signature while a correction officer at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction.

On March 30, 1993, Mr. Glodis authorized "administrative lock-in status" for an inmate. He signed a document himself and forged the name of his supervisor - Assistant Deputy Superintendent Jack Allen III - next to a line on the form that read: Assistant Deputy Superintendent.

Two days later, Mr. Allen initialed a note on a copy of the document that said: "Mr. Glodis got a one-time warning about signing my name to anything ..."

Mr. Glodis said the incident, brought to light recently by retired Worcester County Jail and House of Correction deputies John Gabriel and Robert Sharry, was not as serious as they portray it. He released a copy of the document himself and said the incident amounted to "a clerical error."

"There was never a falsified report. There was never any disciplinary action taken," he said, adding that he could have signed his captain's name without repercussion. He said his mistake was in signing his deputy's name instead.

Mr. Gabriel said Mr. Glodis received a written warning and a similar offense by Mr. Glodis likely would have led to a suspension at minimum.

Deputy Jail Superintendent William E. Frisch also disagreed with Mr. Glodis' interpretation of the action taken against him by Mr. Allen.

"The policy is, you don't sign anybody else's name to anything," Mr. Frisch said.

The two retired officers told the Telegram & Gazette that Mr. Glodis was a below-average, mediocre worker prone to excessive absence from work. Mr. Glodis accused the retired officers of trying to use one incident to call his entire record as a correction officer into question.

Another of Mr. Glodis' former supervisors - Charles J. Spaziante - pronounced his performance "very good." He said he recalled supervising Mr. Glodis from 1991-94.

"He did everything he was told to do," Mr. Spaziante said. "If there was any disciplinary action brought against him, I would know. That wouldn't be something you can hide. I don't know where these guys are coming from. He had a good record there."

Mr. Glodis, who worked at the jail in 1988 and from 1991 to 1996, refused to allow a reporter to review his complete personnel file, which he obtained last week shortly after learning of the charges leveled by Mr. Gabriel, of Fitchburg, and Mr. Sharry, of Worcester.

"I'm not going to show the file to anybody, because it's from 10 years ago," Mr. Glodis said.
Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Sharry said they decided to come forward with the allegations because they were, in the words of Mr. Sharry, "disgusted with the Glodis campaign."

"He is masquerading as something that he is, in fact, not," Mr. Gabriel said. Both men retired last year after 32 years of service - Mr. Gabriel as a deputy sheriff and Mr. Sharry as an assistant deputy sheriff.

The two said Mr. Glodis worked part time at the jail and, like any temporary correction officer, was never formally trained. Mr. Glodis said his training was essentially "on-the-job." He said as sheriff he would require all new hires, including temporary correction officers, to go through the same formal training process required for permanent hires.

The president of the correction officers' union, which has endorsed Mr. Glodis, questioned the veracity of the allegations.

"The remarks are coming from a biased, tainted source with no credibility whatsoever," said Michael C. Martin, chief union steward for the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union. "Deputy Sharry and Deputy Gabriel weren't even directly supervising him when he was a temporary officer at the prison."

Mr. Gabriel is the son of the late Harold Gabriel, an assistant deputy superintendent of the jail from 1966 until becoming the first superintendent of North Central Correctional Institution in Gardner in 1981.

Mr. Sharry is a cousin of John R. Sharry, a former county commissioner who is raising money for Sheriff John M. "Mike" Flynn's campaign.

Mr. Gabriel called Mr. Glodis' forgery "reckless and disturbing." He said he told Mr. Allen at the time to warn Mr. Glodis never to do anything like that again.

Mr. Glodis' written evaluations will show that his attendance was "less than satisfactory," Mr. Gabriel said. "Sometimes he shows up and if it's inconvenient, he doesn't. It doesn't show a guy who's interested in making a career in the business, unless he jumps right to sheriff."

"Sen. Glodis doesn't have any experience whatsoever," he said. "But he's using the fact that he was a correction officer to validate his run for sheriff, that he knows the business - but he doesn't. He was just an average-to-mediocre temporary who had some issues. A junior officer with no training. He wasn't the worst guy over there, but he certainly wasn't any shining star. I'd call him "below average.'"

"Who had some discipline problems," Mr. Sharry said.

Mr. Glodis said that although a temporary correction officer, he often worked 40-plus hours a week. He said he was not sure of the percentage of his time at the jail that was full time. He said about 30 percent of the jail's correction officers at any given time are temps who are not academy-trained.

Mr. Gabriel said he did not want to take away any of Mr. Glodis' accomplishments as chairman of the legislative Public Safety Committee.

"But if being chairman of that committee somehow gives you the knowledge to be in the prison business, I just don't see it," Mr. Sharry said.

"His training was orientation and that was it."

The two said Mr. Glodis' performance as a correction officer was relevant because his campaign leads voters to believe he had more experience at the jail.

Mr. Gabriel said, "Obviously I support the sheriff and I have loyalty to him, but I've got nothing to gain from this. There's more to the business than opening the door and having someone who's supervising you telling you to count the inmates."

"At best, he was mediocre, that's the only word I can think of," he said.

Mr. Glodis defended his work record, saying, "In my five years at the Sheriff's Department, I was never disciplined or formally reprimanded in any way, shape or form. People I worked directly under and with support me for my character and my integrity."

Richard Nangle can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].