SANATOGA PA – Lower Pottsgrove is paying for two attorneys, one to represent its interests and another to advise its Civil Service Commission, during a legal hearing yet to be scheduled in which a township police officer is appealing a disciplinary action imposed by Chief Michael Shade and approved by the Board of Commissioners.
The North Pleasant View Road entrance to Lower Pottsgrove's Police Department.
Board members voted unanimously Thursday night (Aug. 18, 2011) to retain attorney Charles “Chuck” Garner Jr. of the Garner & Bauer law firm, 2050 E. High St., Sanatoga, as special counsel to the Civil Service Commission in a hearing requested by Officer Matthew Meitzler. Vice President Bruce Foltz was absent from the meeting and did not vote.
The patrolman is opposing Shade’s decision, approved by commissioners on July 7, to suspend him for two 12-hour shifts without pay following an earlier incident that involved a police vehicle outside Sunnybrook Ballroom. Meitzler was driving the force’s newest cruiser at the time, according to township Manager Rodney Hawthorne, when it was involved in an accident with a light pole.
The date and other specifics of the incident were not discussed during Thursday’s meeting. It is known to have been the subject of several earlier board executive sessions that were closed to the public, most recently during July. The township is being advised in the matter by attorney Ryan Cassidy of the Eckert Seamans Cherin and Mellot law firm in Philadelphia, Hawthorne added.
Meitzler was expected to serve his suspension sometime during mid- or late-July, but has not as a result of his appeal. Although the hearing date has not been set, according to Solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway, the session would be open to the public.
The Civil Service Commission consists of Chairman Jacob Dailey, members Mike Misiak and John Genther, and alternate E.G. “Woody” Righter, the township website reports. Because it is the hearing body in the dispute, “it’s appropriate” that it be advised by Garner on how the hearing is conducted, Holloway explained.
The hourly fees or other costs associated with both attorneys was not estimated or disclosed.
Meitzler, who was hired by the Police Department during 2007, has since been honored twice by the township. He was named its Officer of the Year during 2009 for “the significant impact he … made in leading the department’s Drug Task Force,” Shade said at the time. During 2010, Meitzler also was presented with a certificate thanking him “for exceptional duty” in helping to subdue a shotgun-wielding man in Lower Pottsgrove’s Woodgate residential area.
Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Aug. 18):
- Township Pays Two Attorneys In Police Discipline Case
- Road Re-Paving Is Coming; Just When Anybody’s Guess
- Township, An Unhappy Bank Customer, Goes Elsewhere
- Township May Put Money Where Authority’s Mouth Is
This officer is obviously a decorated officer who had an accident. I find it absolutely unreasonable that we as tax payers would allow our board, chief, and township manager to hire two attorneys for this. To begin with I’m sure this is not the first officer to have an accident in the department or even the only township employee to have an accident. Some people need to look in the mirror before acting on something they have done in the past or since this has happened.
If the punishment stands, this officer should be forced to repay the township and citizens for us wasting the money on these lawyers!!!