Sept. 16--A West Reading official recently spoke privately with borough police officers about the need to ensure safety at borough hall.
They weren't talking about a deranged member of the public going on a rampage.
They were talking about a concern that morale is so poor in the police department that they feared some officers involved in recent scandals would take matters into their own hands and attack co-workers.
It's just one of many signs that the West Reading police department is dysfunctional at best and a terrifying danger to the community at worst, according to current and former borough officers, some officers from nearby departments and several community residents and business owners.
Among other signs of trouble is a workplace arbitration ruling issued last week that said an officer's career that was full of borough policy violations made the department "appear to be out-of-control and undisciplined."
Just this year, officers were fired or suspended for using department-issued stun guns on each other and on some unwilling civilians, though the arbitration ruling gave two of those officers their jobs back last week.
On Aug. 31, Officer Ronald E. Ladd brawled with Police Chief Edward C. Fabriziani in the chief's office after Ladd argued with a colleague who refused to arrest a man for violating a protection-from-abuse order.
Fabriziani said the department has functioned well even through the recent scandals.
"I have no clue why they're saying that," Fabriziani said Saturday in an interview in the office of his attorney, Kevin A. Moore. "I never had an officer come to me with a complaint about poor morale."
Some officers in the department have severe drinking problems and some have shown up to work and training sessions intoxicated, according to testimony obtained by the Reading Eagle. The testimony came during administrative hearings as part of the borough's internal investigation into the stun-gun scandal last year.
Some testified that officers were coming to work drunk even as the investigation proceeded. They said the chief was aware of it but nothing was done.
Fabriziani said he doesn't know of any officers coming to work intoxicated and that they would be disciplined if they did.
There was testimony about officers punching each other in the face, using racial epithets against civilians and leaving confiscated drug paraphernalia on their desks as decorations.
At one point in the investigation, the private attorney doing the questioning on the borough's behalf commented to an officer: "You guys are a rough group."
Testimony said notarized complaints by civilians about officers never were investigated. Those who made the complaints said months later they were never contacted.
Moore said Fabriziani never received the complaints referred to in the testimony.
West Reading Criminal Investigator Joseph M. Brown, speaking as president of the Berks County Fraternal Order of Police, recalled last week that he went to a 2011 council meeting and warned council that the police department was a runaway train.
"That was our warning to council and they did nothing and now the train has left the rails," Brown said last week.
Mayor Shane J. Keller said in an email: "I will not comment on personnel matters."
Culture of horseplay
Some contend the department ran better for several years under Fabriziani's initial leadership, which began in 1996. Others say officers have feuded with the chief nonstop.
During internal investigation testimony, officers said Fabriziani has not been in borough hall often in recent years.
"He says that he works from home," one officer said.
"That's false," Fabriziani said.
In other testimony as the investigation continued into March, one sergeant recounted a conversation he had with two other borough sergeants about who would be in command should the chief be unavailable.
"I said, OK, you are both on duty," the testimony transcript reads. "The chief is out of town. You have an active shooter in the school. Who is in charge? Neither one of them could answer that question. They stumbled over themselves, which is my point about the chain of command."
Fabriziani said that when he goes away he always designates an officer-in-charge in a memo to police and borough officials.
In recent years, sources said, Fabriziani has pitted officers against one another by having favorites among them.
The arbitration report said discipline meted out by Fabriziani and the borough is selective.
Moore said state law dictates borough code, which allows police chiefs only to issue warnings and reprimands. Harsher punishments -- suspensions, reductions in rank and terminations -- must come from a mayor or borough council, he said.
Fabriziani said there have been times when he wanted to be able to do more than issue warnings and reprimands.
Sources said officers who complain about improper procedures and other issues are ignored or face retaliation, such as schedule changes and having choice assignments taken away, while other officers get away with screaming at co-workers and civilians and other misbehavior.
The arbitration report said other officers witnessed several stun-gun incidents, but those men were not disciplined for failing to report them while one was singled out and punished.
The arbitrator later said Officer Matthew Nguyen should not have been punished for not reporting that he was told officers had used stun guns on each other at a party he did not attend.
The arbitrator ruled the borough must rescind his 30-day working day suspension, remove it from his personnel file and give him back pay.
In the internal affairs testimony, it was revealed Nguyen had once been a victim when another officer had used a stun gun on him.
But Nguyen was singled out by Fabriziani, sources said.
"The borough has selectively enforced any requirement to report offenses," the arbitration ruling said.
One officer at another department who declined to be named said: "To see some people sweating bullets while others can freewheel around and do whatever they want is not good. There is a handful of guys walking on eggshells over there."
Sgt. Matthew R. Beighley was one of Fabriziani's favorites, sources said.
During the borough's stun-gun investigation, Beighley, who was the department's stun-gun instructor, admitted to using a stun gun several times on borough employees and his father.
One time during SWAT training, Beighley used a stun gun on an officer from another department. Beighley said he thought the man "was acting up so I popped him with it," the report said.
Beighley dismissed all the incidents as horseplay and said his supervisors, including Fabriziani, were aware of it and did not take any action to stop it, the report said.
In testimony from the stun gun investigation, a witness said Fabriziani was present when Beighley shot the officer during SWAT training.
Fabriziani said that's not true, noting that though he is deputy commander of the SWAT team, formally called the Berks County Emergency Response Team, he does not attend all training.
Fabriziani is on leave from BCERT while he is on leave as chief. He and Ladd have been on leave since their fight.
The borough police officers association argued during the arbitration hearing this summer that there is a culture of horseplay in the department, which promoted Beighley to sergeant in January 2011 after all but one of the stun-gun incidents had already occurred.
Astounding behavior
Lt. Erik Kleynen of the York police department, who during arbitration was the borough's expert witness on stun guns, said the behavior of West Reading's officers "shocks the conscience."
"I was astounded at the behavior displayed by these officers," he was quoted as saying in the arbitrator's report. "To think that this behavior had become commonplace with these officers is unbelievable."
He said stun guns are weapons, yet Beighley and others treated them as instruments of horseplay.
Using police equipment for fun was something of a hobby for Beighley, who once hooked stun-gun wires to his wife at a Christmas party at her request. In the report, Beighley compared it to her previous request to be pepper-sprayed because she wanted to know what it felt like and thought it was funny.
In 2010, while living with his dad when Beighley was separated from his wife, he shot the stun gun at his dad, who fell over and broke a beer mug that he was carrying, the report said.
The report also said members of the borough road crew asked Beighley to use the stun gun on them and that Fabriziani had given permission.
That's correct, Fabriziani said Saturday and in internal affairs testimony.
"He (Beighley) said they asked for a demo and I said, 'Yes,' " Fabriziani said.
The report noted: "One may wonder how Chief Fabriziani and other superior officers failed to become aware of the many instances of misuse of the Taser."
Moore said: "He (Fabriziani) can't comment on what's in the mind of the arbitrator who wrote the report."
Brown said Fabriziani and other supervisors tolerated misbehavior by some officers but often unfairly chastised other hardworking officers.
"Certain types of behavior were accepted with the chief's knowledge and nothing was done," Brown said.
But the report also says that when informed of an incident March 22, 2011, when Beighley used a stun gun on an unwilling Officer Chad Marks, department leadership investigated the use of stun guns and disciplined officers.
"That's correct," Fabriziani said. "I did."
Last week Keller said he was pleased the arbitrator noted the borough appropriately launched an investigation.
Stunning revenge
Beighley's undoing can be traced back to a Halloween party in 2010 at the home of Sgt. Ryan Phillips.
That's where Phillips and Officer Nick Karetas used stun guns on Beighley and each others' wife and girlfriend.
A video of the incident made its way to District Attorney John T. Adams and resulted in an investigation that uncovered Beighley's rampant misuse of the weapon.
Beighley was charged in August 2011 with three counts each of illegal use of a stun gun, official oppression and harassment.
He wasn't charged with more counts because some of the people whom he used the stun gun on did not report the incidents.
After he was charged, Beighley was banned in January from being allowed to possess weapons for one year, while in a special probation program.
Beighley, Phillips and Karetas were fired that month, and Nguyen was suspended by borough council.
The officers later were allowed by council to seek arbitration, which means both sides agreed to abide by the decision of an arbitrator.
The arbitrator's report said Phillips used the stun gun on Beighley at the party as retaliation for several practical jokes Beighley had played.
Sources said one such joke became known as the "Tastykake incident," which occurred after Beighley had arrested a prostitute for shoplifting.
The woman had a package of stolen Tastykakes hidden in her panties.
Beighley took the package and placed it on a table in the lunchroom where unlabeled food was viewed as fair game to any officer, sources said.
A while later, Beighley came across Phillips eating the Tastykakes.
Beighley roared with laughter and told Phillips why.
Years later, after using the stun gun on Beighley, Phillips declared, "That's for the Tastykakes!"
But the arbitration report said the behavior at the party by Phillips and Karetas was a one-time lapse in judgment and that both should be reinstated but not receive back pay. The report also concluded Beighley was properly fired.
The report concluded the borough couldn't fire Ryan Phillips because borough officials had allowed him to continue working after Adams' criminal investigation ended and that the borough even put him in charge of monitoring another officer who had been suspended for an off-duty drunken-driving charge.
Damaged reputation
Borough officials said last week that it's unclear if legal fees and other costs associated with the police department will affect future budgets and funding available for public works projects.
Brown estimated the department's scandals, associated court costs and investigations by a private attorney on the borough's behalf have cost the borough at least $100,000 over the last two years.
But some borough officials are optimistic because the borough has saved money by having Beighley, Phillips and Karetas without pay for most of the year.
There is concern that the department's reputation has suffered to the point that it won't recover for years, with some borough officials suggesting it might take an entire new generation of officers to come and go before this era is forgiven or forgotten.
"We look like a bunch of Keystone Kops," lamented one borough officer who asked to not be named.
Fabriziani agreed the department's reputation has been hurt.
"Of course it's damaged," he said.
But he said, "The department is still functioning and functioning well."
He said he looks forward to returning to work and restoring the public's confidence.
The department's reputation has been brought into question before.
Officer Thomas A. Hawn, the officer who declined to make the arrest in the incident that preceded the Aug. 31 fight in the chief's office, killed an elderly man in 1999 when his patrol car struck the man's car as the officer ran a stop sign while responding to a call.
State police cited Hawn for running the stop sign, but Hawn was later found not guilty.
He and the borough were sued by the widow for a minimum of $150,000. The suit was settled, sources said. Details of the settlement were not available.
During the lawsuit, an attorney argued borough officials knew Hawn had a history of unsafe driving.
Recently, in the days after Hawn declined to arrest the man with the protection order against him, borough officers have at least twice had to respond to his troublemaking.
Most recently, on Thursday, other officers arrested the man, Kenny Ludy, 32, of Earl Township, after he allegedly beat the woman who had originally taken out the protection order. The beating happened while she was on the phone with county 9-1-1 dispatchers, police said.
History of controversy
Officers have questioned the chief's leadership over the years, and Brown and Fabriziani have butted heads for two decades.
One of their earliest disputes -- from when both were patrolmen vying for a job as corporal -- resulted in Fabriziani filing a lawsuit in 1992 because Brown was promoted over him.
Borough officers have routinely but privately mocked the chief because he failed to pass a test to become a sergeant in June 1995 but still was appointed chief in 1996 by borough council.
When some people complained about Fabriziani's lack of experience while other candidates had been in law enforcement 30 years, officials said they were looking for someone to restore integrity to a department battered by internal strife. Its previous two chiefs were accused of sexual harassment.
"When someone says there's a culture of dysfunction in any organization, it comes down to the leadership," Brown said.
West Reading police officers are working in a hostile environment where favoritism, retaliation and bad morale are the norm, Brown said.
Officers live in constant fear of being demoted, losing their jobs or even being attacked in the workplace, Brown said.
"When you are less concerned about what's going to happen to you out on the street than you are about what's going to happen when you walk into work, that's a hostile work environment," Brown said.
Fabriziani said he doesn't understand why the police department would be characterized that way.
He added that West Reading is a good place to work and live.
"It's a safe place based on the work my officers do," he said. "We have to get past this and move forward and not keep looking back."
Contact Jason Brudereck: 610-371-5044 or [email protected].
Copyright 2012 - Reading Eagle, Pa.
