After meeting behind closed doors for nearly three hours Wednesday night, Tisbury selectmen remained mum on the outcome of a disciplinary hearing for a longtime police officer.
The hearing for Det. Mark Santon was conducted in executive session. Mr. Santon has been on paid administrative leave since Jan. 31. Reconvening briefly in public after the closed-door session, selectmen had no comment except to adjourn. Afterward, selectman Tristan Israel said the board took “appropriate action,” but declined to state what the action was, citing a memorandum of understanding that prohibited him from sharing more information. Town administrator Jay Grande said said more information would be released in a few days along with a redacted report.
The disciplinary action stems from an incident on the evening of Jan. 27 in which an Edgartown woman who was taken into custody following a minor motor vehicle accident ended up in the emergency room at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. The publicly available police report from the incident includes two written narratives. One is an incident report written by Officer Rogers, who responded first to the scene of the accident near the Steamship Authority on foot from the police station. There is also an officer report written by Detective Santon who assisted in the response. A Sergeant Habekost, whose first name is not used, also assisted according to the reports.
According to the reports, the minor accident involved two vehicles, one operated by Mark Clarke, 51, of Vineyard Haven, and the other operated by Alice A. Ribeiro, 41, of Edgartown. According to the reports, when officers responded to the scene, a check revealed that Ms. Ribeiro was a Brazilian national with no driver’s license and one prior arrest in 2009 for driving without a license. The reports recount that she was placed under arrest, handcuffed behind her back and placed in the back seat of a cruiser driven by Detective Santon for transport to the Edgartown house of correction.
Detective Santon’s report details the events that happened on arrival at the jail, when he went inside seeking a deputy for assistance, leaving her in the back of the cruiser for what the report describes as “a few minutes.” According to the report, when the law enforcement officials returned to the car Ms. Ribeiro was slumped over and unresponsive, apparently having freed one hand from the cuffs. The cord from the hood of her sweatshirt was “tightly wrapped around her neck twice and tied off with a knot,” the report said. The report further details the emergency response that followed, including transporting Ms. Riberio to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital emergency room for treatment.
Selectmen and police chief Daniel Hanavan have said only that Detective Santon was facing possible disciplinary action and that matter was the subject of an independent investigation by someone outside the police department, but have declined to speak about the facts in the case.
The executive session began at 5:14 p.m. Wednesday in the town hall and concluded at 8 p.m. Attending the session were all three selectmen, Brian Maser, a labor attorney from Kopelman and Paige in Boston, Mr. Santon, Chief Hanavan, Lieut. Eerik Meisner, officer Jeremy Rogers, a union steward, officer Max Sherman, union president, officer Jeff Day, union member, Clare Schroeder from the Massachusetts Coalition of Police.
The day before, at the regular selectmen’s meeting, a member of the Vineyard group We Stand Together read a prepared statement that made clear reference to the incident and outlined concerns about protocols for women who have been detained by police.
“The process for transferring women under arrest from the custody of the Tisbury [police department] to the custody of the sheriff’s department appears unstructured,” said Shari Geistfelds, reading the statement. “It seems apparent that there is a need for procedures which would help protect both those under arrest and local law enforcement.”
She also said: “We are confused by the months-long silence from local law enforcement and the board of selectmen. We encourage all departments involved to acknowledge the value of an informed public, and that as this story unfolds, you will be able to address your choice to keep the public uninformed of an issue that involves public safety.”
Selectman Tristan Israel thanked the group and said he agreed with many of the questions.
“Is there sensitivity training, are there new methods, are there things we should be discussing in our department . . . . that issue has been publicly raised in the past two months,” he said. “Those kinds of issues, to me, are important.”
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