Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo created an anonymous Twitter account to taunt a police critic, he admitted to Seven Days on Thursday evening.
The account, @WinkleWatchers, has since been deleted. Del Pozo created the profile to mock Charles Winkleman, a Burlington resident, political activist and known provocateur who regularly takes aim online at the chief, landlords and others in power.
Del Pozo lied when Seven Days asked him about the burner account in July, saying he had nothing to do with it. But days later, del Pozo confessed what he had done to Mayor Miro Weinberger. He took six weeks of medical leave to seek mental health treatment, the mayor said. The chief has been back on duty since mid-September.
“I was disappointed in what I did,” del Pozo told a reporter Thursday, speaking softly in a somber tone. “It was a mistake, and I regret it, and I’m sorry.”
“Holy shit,” said Winkleman, when told about the chief’s admission. “Oh my God. Wow.”
“I’m amazed that they would even admit it,” he said. “But for me it comes down to: What’s going to change? What’s the accountability like?”
Del Pozo created the account on July 4 while he was off duty, he said. Using his personal cellphone, he sent out a litany of tweets mocking Winkleman’s views. The avatar for the account was a cropped photo of Winkleman wearing a Groucho Marx-style mustache, previously published in connection with his performance at the 2013 Green Mountain Comedy Festival.
“The #ChickyTroll is a cowardly creature hiding behind an electron curtain,” WinkleWatchers wrote in one tweet. “Chicky” is a nickname of Winkleman’s. “We’ve been blocked, but he will surely continue to insult, debase, have faux indignation, harass, and in sum: TROLL.”
Winkleman contacted Seven Days soon after with his suspicion that del Pozo was behind the profile. This reporter asked del Pozo about the allegation on July 23. He denied having any “sock puppet accounts.”
“The answer’s categorically no,” the chief said. “If I had anything to say, I would say it directly.”
On July 28, del Pozo went to Weinberger’s home to admit to his boss that he’d created and run the account, both men said. Weinberger placed the chief on paid administrative leave, stripped del Pozo of his gun, badge and cellphone, and ordered him to stay off social media.
A subsequent internal investigation by city attorney Eileen Blackwood and Human Resources director Deanna Paluba “very quickly … turned up a number of things,” Weinberger said, including a finding that del Pozo’s actions were “linked to an underlying medical condition.”
“From that point on,” Weinberger said, “this was treated as a verified medical situation.”
The mayor’s chief of staff, Jordan Redell, announced on August 2 that del Pozo had taken a “Family and Medical Leave of Absence.” Del Pozo returned to duty on September 15 after his personal doctor and the city’s independent medical examiner both cleared him, Weinberger said.
On Monday, Winkleman published a lengthy account of why he believed the chief was behind WinkleWatchers on his site, charleswinkleman.com, under the headline “Chief Brandon del Pozo Bullies Critics into Silence.”
Seven Days reached out to del Pozo Tuesday about Winkleman’s public allegation. A deputy chief called the paper on Wednesday to say the chief would be available to talk in person at the One North Avenue police headquarters at 5 p.m. Thursday.
During the interview, del Pozo refused to name his specific diagnosis, but he said he suffered a brain injury in his June 2018 near-fatal bike accident in the Adirondacks. He also alluded to stressful “challenges” this spring and summer, when his department was under intense scrutiny for use of force.
“It resulted in a lapse of judgment where I made a mistake that I regret,” del Pozo said. “I responded to negativity with negativity in a way that doesn’t become a chief of police.”
His social media presence has led to criticism in the past. In July 2017, the chief used his personal Facebook account to take to task an 18-year-old woman who accused officers of wrongdoing on social media.
Weinberger acknowledged the chief’s problematic past social media use. Yet when del Pozo returned from leave, the mayor’s only sanction was to verbally reprimand the chief. He warned him any repeat offense would result in his immediate dismissal. The mayor chose not to pursue harsher discipline because del Pozo regretted his actions and his service has “otherwise been exemplary,” Weinberger said.
“Mental health challenges are serious issues among public safety personnel,” Weinberger added. “We have a duty to be compassionate about them.”
Winkleman was critical of the administration for not going public sooner and said the chief has never shown he can accept criticism.
He said: “If you regretted it, why didn’t you apologize to me?”
Related Stories
Redacted: How the City of Burlington Keeps the Public in the Dark
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
I just noticed that del Pozo is still on twitter even though Miro supposedly ordered him NOT to use any social media! Who’s lying now??
“Rennaisance Cop” Brandon Del Pozo is in reality Chief Officer Petty McSnowflake.
Wow! I wish MY stress-induced mental health problems got me eight weeks’ vacation and a free pass to be an asshole. Nice work if you can get it.
I wish he had just come clean and said I was ticked off at this Winkleman kid who has been busting my chops for years. I had a few glasses of wine at home one night and made a bad decision to engage with him in an improper manner. Now it looks like hes hiding behind what may or may not be a vague and convenient repercussion from a head injury. If it is indeed true that hes incapable of impulse control then thats not really great. But the lying is troubling for sure.
So the bottom line is that the Chief of Police is a human being, who made a mistake. Can we show the same compassion we would wish others would give us, if and when we make a mistake?
My first two years in college were as a CJT/Psych major. I can definitively say most of the then-current and future LEOs were NOT good people, from the beginning; my instructor for many classes and department head, who formerly worked for Metro-Dade actively encouraged lying, eg, “But who do YOU think a judge and jury are going to believe, you, in your dress blues, or Joe Blow off the streets, in his jeans and sneakers?” Then I interned. I have never wanted to, nor actually worked, for the system, since completing the AAS or later degrees.
I am bipolar. I was hospitalized several times before the doctors were able to find the right mix of meds that has nearly eliminated my extreme manic episodes. When I went to group meetings at the hopsital, I realized that anythng that I did when I was manic was ultimately my responsibility regardless of my mental state. I feel that I should not blame my illness for things that I did. It is my responsibilty to control myself. Luckily, I never did things that would hurt other people. I lost my job because of my illness, rightly so. I did continue to work for a couple years and it was obvious that I couldn’t do it well anymore. I worked with 2 of my friends who are carpenters for the next 16 years until I turned 65. I didn’t make much money but it was something I could do and I enjoyed it. The bottom line is I will take responsiblity for my actions and I will not use my mental illness as excuse for them.
Oops I meant to say send him back as in Del Pozo
“Ship them back to New York.”
Miro doesn’t come from New York. But don’t let factual accuracy get in your way.
Is it OK now for a Seven Days article to engage in name calling in a news article?
Even if true that Charles Winkleman “regularly takes aim online at the chief, landlords and others in power,” the article disparages him with an epithet “known provocateur.” Which shifts the blame to Winkleman for the illegitimate and underhanded action by the chief of police.