Civil suit filed against Grafton Police over handling of complaint

Robert Holmes, appointed to Grafton Emergency Management earlier this week, filed a civil suit against the town and members of the Grafton Police Department Thursday, alleging that he was refused police services until he gave his identification.

The civil suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, refers to a March 24 incident when Holmes came into the station at 4:10 a.m. to complain about flashing lights from a police detail outside of his home on Deernolm Street.

“When I was speaking with the Police Dispatcher on-duty I was advised that I could not speak to the on-duty Police Sgt. Without providing my identification,” Holmes wrote in an email to the Select Board. “I find this highly troubling since I was not in custody and I was just a civilian filling a complaint against the department.”

He also noted that the dispatcher at first tried to contact the on-duty officer on his cell phone rather than the department’s recorded line and expressed concern that the dispatcher may have run a background check on him through Massachusetts DCJIS.

“My original complaint was about the excessive use of police lights outside my front window on the overnight hours, but it has now turned into a possible civil rights violation,” Holmes wrote.

The civil suit names the town of Grafton, the Grafton Police Department, Police Chief Normand Crepeau, Dispatcher Mark Ricard, Sgt. James Crosby, Town Administrator Evan Brassard, and Town Clerk Kandy Lavallee.

The filing requests $16,000 in punitive damages for time, expenses and emotional stress. He is also requesting that the police department require all customer-facing personnel to attend annual in-person training on search, seizure and identification laws of the United States and Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In a response to a written complaint from Holmes, Crepeau said there was no record in Massachusetts DCJIS of any query on Holmes on the date in question.

“Sgt. Crosby indicated that he spoke with Dispatcher Ricard with regard to requesting names of citizens wishing to remain anonymous and reminded him how to handle such events in the future,” Crepeau said. “Sgt, Crosby stated that, after speaking with you, he responded to Deernolm Street and spoke with the detail officer, Mark Benoit, and made an assessment of the work zone and use of cruiser emergency lighting. 

“Sgt. Crosby reported that the cruisers emergency flashers were activated on low power, indicating that they were dimmed,” he added.  “Sgt. Crosby suggested that the flashers were necessary due to the heavy rain and decreased visibility that morning. It should be noted that the department had not received any other complaints regarding the detail or emergency lights utilized at that site.”