Burlington police chief Brandon del Pozo sent emails, directed subordinates and participated in an on-camera interview with a local television station, all while he was on administrative leave after admitting to misbehavior on social media, according to emails obtained by Seven Days.
Mayor Miro Weinberger placed del Pozo on paid administrative leave at 10:15 a.m. on Monday, July 29. The night before, the chief told the mayor he’d created an anonymous Twitter account to harass department critic Charles Winkleman. He also acknowledged he’d misled a Seven Days reporter when she asked him about it.
The chief surrendered his gun, badge, and city-issued cellphone, and the mayor told him to stay off social media, Weinberger has said in interviews. Human resources director Deanna Paluba met with del Pozo on July 29 and directed him to not work while he was being investigated, she said.
But del Pozo still had access to email and continued to direct some department business for three days, up until August 1, when his paid leave turned into medical leave. He also continued tweeting during those days.
Weinberger said on Thursday that he was unaware del Pozo had disregarded his instruction. The mayor reviewed the emails obtained by Seven Days and said it appeared that del Pozo had only taken a few “substantive” actions while on leave.
Indeed, the majority of the 19 emails del Pozo sent were relatively inconsequential. On Monday night, del Pozo emailed Deputy Chief Jan Wright about releasing a traffic report with a two-word directive: “Send it.” On Tuesday, he forwarded an email with the subject line “Kudos for a job well done!” to police department brass after officers helped a troubled citizen earlier that day.
Other emails were more troubling to Weinberger and his staff — particularly one that shows del Pozo arranged an interview about department traffic-stop data with WCAX-TV hours after he’d been placed on leave, they said.
According to the email chain, WCAX reporter Erin Brown had written del Pozo the prior Friday to set up the TV spot. On Monday at 4:20 p.m., del Pozo emailed Brown to “swing by at 4:45 if you can.”
The interview subsequently ran on the news. In the clip, del Pozo is shown at the Burlington Police Department headquarters at One North Avenue wearing a police windbreaker over a button-down shirt and tie. Weinberger said his staff did not know about the TV interview. Del Pozo had been directed to stay home that day.
“If we had seen it, we would have been quite unhappy because it definitely was a direct violation of the direction that I had given him,” the mayor said.
On July 31, a South Burlington police officer emailed Burlington police to ask for assistance with the execution of a search warrant on August 2. At 5:24 p.m., del Pozo wrote to Deputy Chief Jon Murad, “Send the ERV,” referring to the department’s $157,000 emergency response vehicle.
Del Pozo also tweeted several times over those three days of administrative leave, posting local news stories about Burlington Police Department activities and responding directly to a civilian’s question about fentanyl test strips, his Twitter page shows.
“Had we been aware of that, we would have told him to stop,” Weinberger said of del Pozo’s emails. “Maybe we would have taken some further action.”
Del Pozo’s administrative leave became an absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act on August 1, because the city determined that mental health issues were involved. The city announced around 5:30 p.m. on August 2 that del Pozo was on leave. The chief stayed out for six weeks, and no further explanation was given to the public at the time.
Del Pozo returned to work September 16. On December 12, in response to renewed questions from Seven Days, del Pozo admitted that he had previously lied about making the anonymous Twitter account to troll Winkleman. That same day, Weinberger acknowledged for the first time that he had placed del Pozo on leave because of those actions.
Del Pozo resigned on December 16. Seven Days requested various public records related to the matter on December 18. On Wednesday, the city turned over the emails that showed del Pozo continued to work.
Seven Days subsequently asked the city for documentation of del Pozo’s administrative leave. Jordan Redell, the mayor’s chief of staff, provided an email from July 29 in which Weinberger informed HR director Paluba of del Pozo’s change in status. The city has no other written documentation, Redell confirmed.
Paluba acknowledged she didn’t provide del Pozo with written notice that he was on administrative leave as required by the city personnel handbook, nor had she informed payroll of the chief’s change in status. Paluba, whom the mayor appointed in March 2019, said that in July, she was still a relatively new employee and wasn’t familiar with the procedures around administrative leave.
“I don’t know what the relevance of this is to public safety,” Paluba said, later adding that her investigation was “a very, very stressful few days.”
“I would take full responsibility for that,” Paluba said of the paperwork mistake.
Redell said that Seven Days’ inquiries this week prompted Paluba to retroactively change del Pozo’s payroll designation to reflect his employment status at the start of his leave.
Del Pozo did not respond to an interview request. On Thursday, he tweeted that he’d earned his PhD in political philosophy from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
Meanwhile, a second police administrator remains on leave in a related matter. Weinberger appointed deputy chief Jan Wright acting chief the day that del Pozo resigned. But she was removed from the post hours later, after she told the mayor that she had created her own anonymous social media persona, Lori Spicer.
Redell said that Wright has access to her city email while on leave.
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Holy shit. A leader wrapped up his commitments before stepping away on leave.
Really? That’s it? That’s a story?
This well is dry. Time to move on 7Days.
From the chief’s actions, the lack of any written documentation of placing him on administrative leave, the failure to designate an acting chief at that time and the cover up surrounding this affair, the question that needs to be asked is, was the chief really placed on administrative leave? At best it looks like there was some type of informal understanding while the administration concocted a long term plan. The rules were not followed. Administrative leave is not like retirement or a resignation. You do not get to wind down your affairs. They are transferred to someone else and you are not allowed to be at your workplace. Other than the words of the conspirators, there does not appear to be any evidence that the chief was placed on administrative leave. The claim that he was is a fiction and part of the cover-up story. The optics are becoming clearer, but I don’t think we’ve seen it all yet.
I am wondering if under the red flag laws have all of the police chief’s guns been removed from himself and his home?
I believe in a previous article he admitted that the fall from his bicycle had caused him some mental issues.
I cannot believe the mayor did not call for the removal of all guns since he is in favor of these laws.
Personally I find these laws ridiculous but since they were passed into law I wonder if they pertain to everyone.
Although I am not in favor of red flag laws the Socialist Representatives under the golden dome found it necessary to pass them as an imposition on the people in the state of Vermont.
I believe in a previous article the police chief stated that after a fall from his bicycle he was having mental issues.
Now that that was exposed I am wondering have the proper authorities relieved him of any guns he may have in his possession according to the laws that they imposed.
I would encourage 7 days to do a follow-up to make sure that it is not only the hard-working tax-paying law-abiding citizens of Vermont that have to follow these laws.
I will be keeping my eyes open for the report on this.
Is Jan Wright still on leave and is she being paid? Is there documentation of her leave? Inquiring minds want to know.
Burying his head in the sand seems to be status quo for Weinberger as of late.
“…Twitter account to troll…”
If you are going to use a word, you need a common definition. In this case “troll” seems to be used as in “anonymously gave grief to somebody on line for their crazy ideas”. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Zero. Winkelman is an outlandish clown deserving of the challenge. Lying about it is the problem which doesn’t fall under the heading of “troll”.
I’m tired of everyone getting challenged online accusing their opponents of being “trolls”. If you have stupid ideas, expect to get challenged and man up, defend the content of your ideas instead of lashing about with “oh dear, what a bad man, he challenged my outlandish ideas in public, he trolled me, he trolled me!!”. If it’s a problem, get better ideas.
Bravo to Mr. Cashman.
Does del Pozo think he is Riggs?
Are we really shocked that anyone just ignores everything the Mayor of Burlington says and does whatever they want? The guy is a laughingstock.