METHUEN — After a judge barred them from speaking at sentencing, Mayor D.J. Beauregard and Police Chief Scott McNamara released public victim impact statements Wednesday, condemning what they called a “slap on the wrist” for the case against former Methuen police officer and City Councilor Sean Fountain, detailing the ongoing harm his crimes have inflicted on the city.
In the Dec. 17 sentencing in Salem Superior Court, Judge Thomas Dreschler ruled that the City of Methuen did not qualify as a victim under state law and did not allow the mayor and police chief to deliver their impact statements aloud in court.
Beauregard and McNamara publicly released their statements on Saturday, claiming they have done so on behalf of Methuen’s more than 53,000 residents, taxpayers and law-abiding police officers regarding what they described as “extensive institutional, financial, and civic harm caused by Fountain’s crimes.”
Fountain, a former Methuen city councilor from 2012 to 2017 and a police officer from 2017 to 2020, pleaded guilty to fraud, perjury and related charges — for working as a police officer without the proper police training or state credentials.
Officials said he made more than 40 arrests, conducted searches, initiated prosecutions and made roughly $427,000 in pay and benefits while lacking lawful authority.
Despite facing potential sentences ranging from 2½ years in the Middleton Jail to 20 years in state prison, Dreschler sentenced Fountain to three years of probation and said he is barred from carrying a firearm or working in law enforcement.
The city stated that Fountain’s actions unveiled a sweeping conspiracy that has impacted its finances, credibility and public trust. Beauregard said that the repercussions of the case could go on for a long time.
“The consequences of this conspiracy will reverberate for years through civil litigation from criminal defendants whose cases Fountain touched – cases now legally vulnerable because of his unqualified service,” the mayor said. “The financial risk to our city is enormous.”
“This case is about more than white-collar fraud. It is about the integrity of government itself.” Beauregard wrote.
The mayor added that Fountain did not act alone, and that the fraud occurred due to involvement of senior figures within the department.
“Fountain did not act alone. He could not have acted alone. And the harm inflicted on this city did not come from a single rogue employee – it came from a network of corruption within law enforcement leadership itself,” Beauregard wrote.
His statement continued with mention of former Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon and former Municipal Police Training Committee Executive Director Robert Ferullo, whom the mayor identified as figures who enabled the misconduct to “create and conceal the fraud.”
Solomon, who is accused of orchestrating improper hires and appointments within the department, has a trial scheduled for September 2026 as his criminal case is still pending.
After serving 35 years under the Methuen Police Department, Solomon has now been charged with two counts of perjury, seven counts of obtaining unwarranted privileges in violation of the Civil Service laws, six more counts of Civil Service Law violations, uttering a forged document and procurement, authorities said.
Fountain knowingly misrepresented his credentials, McNamara wrote, falsely claiming he had graduated from a part-time police academy in 1995, and that Solomon was aware of the fraud, submitting a forged certificate and misleading others about Fountain’s qualifications.
McNamara noted that the crimes perpetrated by Fountain as well as allegedly by Solomon has real consequences.
“Mr. Fountain, knowing full well that his entire tenure had been completely fraudulent, testified as a prosecution witness in a homicide trial in the state of New Hampshire,” McNamara wrote. “Upon information and belief, Mr. Fountain never disclosed to the prosecutors in that case the crucial fact that his sworn authority had been obtained through fraud.”
The police chief added that the city urged Judge Dreschler to impose a significant term of incarceration on account of the lasting harm inflicted on the victims, the police department and the community.
Beauregard called upon U.S. Attorney Leah Foley to give additional review of this case and consider whether “further federal scrutiny is warranted.”
The mayor and police chief intend to ensure the public record fully captures the extent of the wrongdoing by holding all responsible parties accountable, they said.