MARBLEHEAD — Members of the Police Department failed to disclose a 2019 incident in which an officer scratched a swastika into another officer’s personal vehicle, according to a report released by the town Thursday.
On July 1 or 2 of that year, Officer Andrew Dimare was unloading his police cruiser at the end of his shift when he saw Officer Timothy Tufts sitting in his car before the latter began his midnight shift, according to the report, which was written by an investigator from Law Enforcement Application Development Strategies (LEADS). Dimare placed an empty can under the windshield wiper of Tuft’s car as a joke, something that the two officers had done in the past when they attended the police academy together.
In response, Tufts got out of the car and used the can to scratch a swastika into the pollen on the hood of Dimare’s car, leaving damage to the paint. Tufts then told Dimare, “Don’t (expletive) with my car.”
The incident went unreported and uninvestigated until Nov. 13, 2020, when then-Chief Robert Picariello learned of it. Tufts was placed on administrative leave and later resigned.
The LEADS report reveals that Dimare and several other officers failed to report the incident in violation of department regulations, although it acknowledges that some had reasons they decided not to. Dimare preferred to deal with the issue himself instead of pressing charges against Tufts, and Officer Nicholas Michaud, who witnessed the incident, did not report it out of respect to Dimare. Sgt. Jason Conrad, who learned that Tufts had scratched Dimare’s car shortly afterwards, did not report it as he did not know that it was a swastika.
Lt. Michael Everett learned of the incident a few days after the fact, and spoke to Dimare. He did not report it further up the chain, which he said, in an interview with investigators, that he regretted; he added that he thought not reporting it was the best thing to do at the time.
Sgt. Sean Brady also failed to report that he heard rumors about the incident later in the summer, because he said there are a lot of rumors that go around the station and not all of them are true.
The report determined that while Tufts committed the crime of vandalism and violated department rules by committing a crime, he did not commit a hate crime because Dimare is not Jewish. He also did not violate the department’s rule against disparaging remarks because his actions did not constitute “speaking” under the language of the rule.
The department did not give Tufts preferential treatment, according to the report, because the case was handled in the same way officers would have handled a case against a civilian, not filing charges without a request from the victim.
Tufts was not interviewed in the investigation as he did not return calls or emails from investigators.
Some officers interviewed expressed that they had had concerns about Tufts’ job performance and use of force before this incident. Interviews revealed past incidents in which Tufts had allegedly put a training instructor in a chokehold during an exercise, gotten angry with a juvenile during an interrogation and thrown a chair at another officer during a disagreement.
Sgt. Eric Osattin expressed frustration to investigators, saying that “the incident came up with someone who myself and another member of the senior staff had voiced issues with in job performance.”
Osattin, who is Jewish, was also the only officer interviewed who said that he had seen discriminatory remarks or actions by officers in the department.
“There have been times where I’ve heard things that I had felt were wrong or were bigoted,” Osattin is quoted as saying in the report. “Whether people thought things were just jokes, they’re not. I have specifically had people tell me after an incident in certain neighborhoods, or involving Jews in public, I’ve had people directly tell me, ‘It was one of your people.'”
The report recommended that both the town and the police department update its policies to include anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies and more explicitly require reporting of rule violations. It also recommended that the department train its staff on workplace harassment and discrimination as well as workplace investigation, and meet with members of the Jewish community to address the incident.
In a statement by Police Chief Dennis King and Town Administrator Jason Silva Thursday, they said that appropriate steps would be taken after the recommendations were reviewed.
“This incident is an unfortunate chapter in our police department’s history, and it’s one that we must collectively work to understand and address,” the statement said. “We will do that as one Marblehead community, with input from stakeholders who have been most affected by it, as well as through a thorough review and revision of relevant policies, procedures and training our officers and staff undergo. There is no place for acts of hatred in Marblehead, and through this process there will be accountability and lasting change that benefits our entire community.”
