Community Corner

Updated: East Hampton Looks to Settle with Reimondo

Town council votes to make offer in exchange for civil suit and other complaints being dropped.

A copy of police chief Matt Reimondo's civil suit filed at Middlesex Superior Court has been attached to this article.

The East Hampton Town Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to make an offer to police chief Matt Reimondo to settle all of his legal claims against the town.

The council met during an executive session prior to its regular meeting. If the offer is accepted, Reimondo would have to agree to drop all pending claims.

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Those claims include: Reimondo et al v. Town et al – Docket No. MMX-CV-10-6003363S;  Reimondo v. Town Council et al – Docket No. FIC2010-444; and Reimondo v. Town, Tuttle, O’Keefe, Engel (four CHRO Complaints) –  CHRO Docket Nos. 1140141, 1140142, 1140143, 1140144.

In a move that stunned the town, Reimondo was laid off from his position as police chief on June 22, 2010. Then-town manager Jeffrey O'Keefe said the decision was for budgetary reasons.

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Reimondo filed a civil suit in August (see pdf) charging that, in an effort to prevent him from investigating sexual harassment allegations made against O'Keefe, certain town officials retaliated by eliminating the police chief position, saying in his complaint they "combined and conspired to create a scheme."

O'Keefe has since resigned, leaving with a $170,000 severance package in September, and Reimondo was reinstated after the issue went to referendum in November. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the chief, 3,701 to 1,617.

Reimondo's lawsuit names O'Keefe, town council chairwoman Melissa Engel, town council vice chair John Tuttle and police Sgt. Michael Green, who at the time had been promoted to Lieutenent to fill a new position that would oversee the police department.


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