Crime & Safety

State Commission To Investigate Moorehead Complaints Against PD, Martinez

State Commission on Human Rights finds merit in complaints and will investigate

By Ellyn Santiago

Patch has obtained Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities  correspondence that show the agency will be pursuing full investigations into the complaints made by Montville Police Officer Karen Moorehead against the department and Resident State Trooper Martin ‘Marty’ Martinez.

According to the complaint, in August of 2012, Martinez played his cell phone ringtone, ‘Where the white women at?” after which Moorehead walked into the room, at which point Martinez said, ‘Oh look, she just walk(ed) in.’ 

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Moorehead said she was embarrassed by the action and complained to state police; Martinez was told to remove the ringtone but following that, Moorehead alleges, a pattern of harassment commenced. She filed a complaint with CHRO in February.

The human rights commission did a “merit assessment review” on each of Moorehead's allegations to determine whether the complaints should be dismissed or be retained for full investigation. A number of assessment standards must be met in order for the cases to go forward.

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The first standard requires the CHRO to accept the allegations as true. The next standard requires a determination on whether or not the claim is “frivolous” or viable. Another standard is if the respondent, in this case the Montville Police Department, is exempt; it is not. And finally, should the case be dismissed or held for full investigation.

That review has been done and in each case, Moorehead’s claims against the police department have been “retained for investigation.”

Moorehead’s position is this, she said: the ring tone was offensive and while it was changed, after that, she alleges, she was retaliated against. And it is those complaints that have now passed muster by CHRO and will be investigated.

In January of this year, Martinez removed Moorehead from her post as School Resource Officer, citing departmental needs. In March, he and Lt. Leonard Bunnell told the town finance committee that position needed to be filled but no officer had stepped forward to fill it. The school department created a line item and filled it with a private security officer, former Resident State Trooper Mike Collins.

And in 2011, Moorehead filed a sexual and workplace harassment complaint against Bunnell. After an 8-month long investigation, the town found myriad allegations “generally happened …but did not rise to the level of workplace harassment.”

Those charges included a Bunnell comment about Moorehead’s breasts, a statement where he said she should “sign (a document) like a good girl,” and instances of “intimidation,” including one when he blocked her from leaving a room and repeated contact when he was cautioned not to have contact with her pending the resolution of the complaint.  

And while the investigation found Bunnell’s behaviors toward Moorehead “entirely inappropriate,” it concluded nonetheless that his actions “did not rise to the level to support a claim of sexual or workplace harassment.”

Moorehead was recently praised for her swift action in assisting victims of the Boston bombing. She and CSP Officer Jeff Meninno, who went to the Boston Marathon after watching a Red Sox game, rushed to the aid of a bombing victim. 


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