ANDOVER — The town will pay $225,000 to its former Youth Services director in a settlement to close out five years of prolonged litigation over his firing.
The Select Board announced the town reached a settlement with former Youth Center Director William Fahey after holding an executive session Monday night.
The executive session marked the fourth time the board met to discuss strategy in respect to litigation filed by Fahey over a two-week period.
Fahey, who served as Youth Services director from 1994 to May 2021, and his attorney Daniel Murphy filed a civil complaint for wrongful termination in the summer of 2021 against Town Manager Andrew Flanagan. Fahey was fired after a woman, identified as MJ in court documents and whom he met when she was a teenager, accused him of inappropriate behavior.
Fahey will receive $225,000 in the settlement, according to the Select Board. The payment is covered by the town’s insurance with no financial impact to taxpayers. The payment is 2.25% of the $10 million originally sought in the lawsuit, Town Manager Andrew Flanagan said in a statement.
The opportunity to settle the matter before trial presented itself after Fahey’s attorney initiated settlement discussions, the Select Board said. It was scheduled to go to trial in Essex Superior Court in Lawrence July 27.
“After carefully evaluating the costs and time associated with a multi-week jury trial, the town determined that resolving the litigation is in the best interests of the community,” the board said in a statement.
“This settlement closes a dispute that has been pending for more than five years, allowing the town to move forward and remain focused on serving the community rather than continuing protracted litigation,” the board said.
Fahey argued in his 2021 complaint that he was unfairly terminated in May 2021 due to a report generated by a third-party investigation. He also claimed Flanagan, individually and as town manager, defamed his character and discredited his reputation in the community through emails sent to the Select Board and public.
Fahey argued Flanagan and the town acted in bad faith to terminate his employment by relying on a woman’s accusations against him, despite the investigator questioning her credibility. In 2020, the 26-year-old MJ accused Fahey of engaging in sexually inappropriate behavior with her beginning at 16, while he supervised the Andover Youth Services program.
At the time, the District Attorney’s office determined Fahey’s alleged conduct was not criminal, even if the accusations were true, according to court documents.
The town launched its own investigation into the woman’s accusations and hired Discrimination and Harassment Solutions LLC. Fahey was placed on administrative leave pending the investigation’s results.
The report found that the woman’s credibility was compromised and identified concerns with her memory issues and inconsistent statements. The investigator also noted how the allegations amounted to, at most, sexual harassment and not sexual assault.
However, the report noted “significant gaps” in Fahey’s credibility, according to court documents.
The report concluded there was sufficient evidence Fahey violated the town’s computer-use policy regarding pornographic material and his “expressions of affection” violated the town’s sexual harassment policy. It also noted his actions were “inconsistent” with his role as a youth services director and recommended disciplinary action.
The town informed Fahey he was being terminated in April 2021. Fahey opposed it, saying there was not “just cause” to fire him. He argued the town relied on accusations to determine if he engaged in “indiscretions” outside the scope of the investigation.
He was ultimately terminated by Flanagan in May 2021.
Flanagan said he stood by the employment decision that was made at that time and supported the Select Board’s decision as the “right decision” for Andover.
“The town remains steadfast that it made the correct employment decision in 2021,” the board said in a statement.
The board cited subsequent decisions of the Division of Unemployment Assistance, the Division’s Board of Review, the Lawrence District Court, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals, and State Ethics Commission proceedings, which “later supported” the original termination decision.
Fahey was fined $20,000 by the State Ethics Commission in June 2023 for violating the conflict of interest law in part for making illegal payments to staff members while he served as director of Andover Youth Services.
Fahey and the assistant director of Youth Services, Glenn Wilson, met with the president of the Hurston Family Foundation in May 2016. The State Ethics Commission and Fahey agreed that the HFF president proposed providing funding to support Youth Services’ building maintenance, programming and staff. The foundation would send the funds to the Andover Youth Foundation, a private nonprofit organization in Andover, which would then disburse the money to Youth Services, according to the signed disposition agreement.
He directed portions of each donation to particular staff members, including himself, as “merit pay” or “merit-based compensation,” the agreement said.
Fahey personally received a total of $16,500 from 2016 to 2021 when the payments were made. This arrangement violated conflict of interest law, which prohibits municipal employees from receiving compensation from anyone other than the town for which they work, according to the agreement.
The Select Board said its priority has been and will continue to be seeing Youth Services succeed. The board noted how the department completed its largest year of programming and community engagement since it began three decades ago.
The board added that the town is committed to its success and the young people and families served by Youth Services.
“Our focus is now on the future. We will continue to build on the outstanding work of our employees and the continued success of Andover Youth Services as we strive to exceed the expectations of our youth, families and the entire community,” Flanagan said in a statement.