NORTH ANDOVER — A management report on the North Andover Police Department issued after a female officer filed a sexual harassment discrimination complaint in 2019 recommended “upper management training and mentoring” for police Chief Charles Gray.
Now, a second female officer has named Gray, this time in a whistleblower lawsuit, saying she’s been subjected to sexual harassment, retaliation and gender discrimination on the force.
In a lawsuit filed in October, Sgt. Katherine Gehrke said she’s been passed over for promotions and retaliated against, in part, because she was “seen as an ally” for other women working in the Police Department, including former Officer Kara Caffrey-Rowley, who filed the formal discrimination complaint with the state in 2019.
In the complaint filed with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in January 2019, Caffrey-Rowley said she told Gray confidentially in 2018 that she was pregnant. He in turn discussed her pregnancy with a ranking officer asking, “Are you sure it’s not yours?” the complaint alleges.
Gehrke’s suit is pending in Essex County Superior Court. She is seeking $830,000 in lost wages, compensation and damages.
Gray, who has been North Andover’s police chief since 2016 succeeding Chief Paul Gallagher, did not return a message seeking comment for this story. Town Manager Melissa Murphy-Rodriguez answered questions regarding the management study of the department, noting that Gray has participated in various forms of training.
The December 2020 report about the Police Department said Gray did not have “the opportunity for mentoring and coaching,” saying he would benefit from leadership training. Recommendations for training included the FBI National Academy, a 10-week course held four times annually in Quantico, Virginia,
Municipal Resources Inc., a Meredith, New Hampshire firm, conducted the study. It also noted that the lack of an “enhanced career development program” at the department in the past left “command management oversight of an agency as complicated as a police agency, wanting in experience or practice.”
MRI recommended Gray hold regular staff meetings, respond to staff inquiries within 24 to 48 hours, establish “specific and regular office hours” where he would be readily available, and “use the chain of command to ensure consistent communication throughout the organization to ensure the elimination of damaging rumors and innuendo,” the report states.
The town paid MRI roughly $7,800 for the study of the Police Department, according to Murphy-Rodrigues.
Since the report was issued, Gray has participated in several trainings through the town, as well as through his involvement in the Essex County Chief’s Association, Murphy-Rodrigues said.
“Most recently, he completed ‘Preventing Discrimination & Harassment in the Workplace,’ along with other town department heads. He has sought the counsel of many of his fellow chiefs, as well as his peers in the town when working through difficult situations,” Murphy-Rodrigues wrote in an email.
When asked if Gray now has “specific and regular office hours,” as recommended by the report, Murphy-Rodrigues said the chief’s contract does not specify “set hours of work.” But he must devote the time and energy necessary to “faithfully perform” his duties as chief.
“In order to best serve the Department, and have contact with as many shifts as possible, the Chief starts his day as early as 6 a.m. most days, and is in and out of the office at meetings, visiting scenes and in other parts of the building. Since the review, the Chief has implemented regularly scheduled meetings with command staff and made a concerted and recognized effort to improve communications within the department,” Murphy-Rodrigues wrote.
She also said Gray “informed” town leaders of numerous leadership and executive training classes he’d “already completed” when the MRI report was issued in December 2020. Those classes included “numerous supervisory and command leadership classes” through the Municipal Police Institute and the FBI-Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (LEEDA).
The Municipal Police Institute, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides training courses for law enforcement officers in Massachusetts.
FBI-LEEDA offers 28-hour training courses at a variety of locations throughout the country, along with webinar instruction, according to the organizations’ websites.
Gray, Murphy-Rodrigues, Deputy Town Manager Denise Casey, and 43 members of the Police Department were interviewed for the MRI report. Interviews focused on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats “ensuring a well-rounded approach to gathering relevant information.”
During MRI’s management review, Gehrke said she complained of “numerous instances of discriminatory and harassing conduct that she had witnessed and been a victim of personally.”
“Specifically, (Gehrke) raised several concerns and objections that women within the department were afforded fewer opportunities for training and appointments to specialty roles,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also alleges Gray regularly plays pranks on the rank and file, “which include, but are not limited to” putting salt in officers’ coffee and moving officers’ personal vehicles from the parking lot to remote locations.
The pranks “were causing other officers to model their behavior after that of Chief Gray,” according to the lawsuit.
Caffrey-Rowley left the Police Department. When asked about the outcome of her MCAD complaint, she said “the matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all parties.”
An undisclosed sum was paid to resolve Caffrey-Rowley’s complaint.
Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter @EagleTribJill.