Framingham cop will resigned after his appeal is rejected

A veteran Framingham Police officer will resign from the department March 1 after the Civil Service Commission rejected his appeal of two suspensions for misconduct.

Officer Albert Blais has been on requested unpaid leave since Jan. 1 and will remain in that status until March 1, when he will resign from the department, Police Chief Steven Carl said yesterday.

Blais had appealed two suspensions levied in 2003 to the Civil Service Commission. Commissioner Christopher C. Bowman denied the appeals in a decision filed Nov. 29.

The decision was expected, Carl said.

"I was very confident going in that the commission would find in our favor," the chief said. "The punishments were appropriate. They were based on serious disciplinary incidents. I feel the department was very fair."

Carl has imposed the two suspensions for separate incidents in 2003.

One occurred on Aug. 22 when Blais responded to a noise complaint involving two black siblings. Blais was accused of saying, "It's not like you're fighting over who ate the last piece of fried chicken."

He also was suspended for 10 days in an incident on Aug. 3 where he ridiculed a female police officer, who is no longer with the department, by "laying on his back, spreading his legs apart and making movements representing a sexual act," Bowman wrote in his 18-page decision.

The officer, whose name has not been released by the department or Bowman, and was the target of the impersonation, said it embarrassed her.

"I know I just felt my face turning red," she was quoted in Bowman's decision. "I've got fair skin and I just felt really hot. ... I was just horrified. ... I just kind of went ha-ha. I laughed, and like, I can't believe this, and I walked way."

Blais never denied the stunt and said he considered it a joke and the woman his friend. He also compared it to a comedian performing and said, "I picked the wrong field, I should have been a comedian and I ended up being a cop," according to Bowman's decision.

"The Appellant (Blais) testified that he regretted performing the impersonation because it got his uniform dirty, recalling that he was thinking at the time of the incident, 'I'm brushing the dirt off my uniform. ... So after I laid on the floor I said, damn, I'm a mess now,' " Bowman wrote.

During the testimony, Blais was asked if he had a history of making racially offensive remarks, and he went on a tirade about the number of calls he had to go to involving non-English speakers, Bowman wrote.

"Every other call that comes in now is that's the phraseology that they use over the radio, 'There's a language barrier,' " Blais said during his testimony. "Like, what the hell does that mean? So what you're telling me is now I have to go to answer a call I have no idea what I'm getting into ... it's become a constant routine in our town and I don't understand why we put up with it."

While recognizing Blais' service in the military, Bowman denied Blais' appeal.

"Disturbingly, Al Blais appears to have no remorse for his behavior, chalking it up as good-natured fun between co-workers," Bowman wrote.

Blais, who joined the force in 1995, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Chief Carl said the strong wording of the decision reinforced how appropriate the department was in suspending Blais.

"The Civil Service system is in place to protect employees, so the fact they believed the Framingham Police acted in an appropriate manner, we were doing things right," the chief said. "His conduct was less than what is expected of a police officer."

Prior to the 2003 suspensions, Blais was the subject of at least a dozen internal Framingham Police Department investigations between 1996 and 2003. The town also paid $15,000 to a woman who accused Blais of assaulting her during a 2002 arrest. In that case, the investigating officer found that Blais did not use excessive force but violated department policies and procedures, according to official reports.

Blais filed his appeal with the Civil Service Commission before being deployed to Iraq in 2004 as part of the 42nd Infantry Division's military police unit. The appeal was not heard until last summer.

Carl said yesterday that Blais leaving the Framingham Police Department is the best thing for both the officer and the department.

"He has many positive attributes, and I hope he uses his experiences in Framingham as an educational experience," said Carl. "He's more than qualified to work in the law enforcement field. The problem was his interpersonal skills, not just on the street, but with the people he worked with in the station."

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or at nmiller@cnc.com.

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