By Damien Fisher
A federal judge ruled against former Salem Police Officer Stephen DiChiara, who sued the town after he says officials sent his medical records to the New Hampshire Attorney General in a failed attempt to land him in legal trouble.
United States District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe dismissed DiChiara’s lawsuit, writing in his decision the police officer never substantiated his claims against the town.
“He has, however, failed to point to any genuinely disputed material facts, nor has he cited legal precedent supporting his position. Instead, he has presented strained and confusing claims and left it to the court to determine if any are viable under state or federal law,” McAuliffe wrote.
DiChiara claimed Town Manager Chris Dillon and Human Resources Director Anne Fogarty gave his medical and mental health records to the Attorney General’s Office after he went on medical leave for a PTSD-related issue. The town officials were trying to get him investigated for workers compensation fraud, according to the lawsuit.
While Dillon and Fogarty were in contact with the Attorney General’s Office about DiChiara’s injury, McAuliffe found they did not send the state investigators the private medical records in question.
“(T)he Town has demonstrated that none of DiChiara’s medical or mental health records were provided to the Attorney General’s Office, thereby refuting the factual claim central to DiChiara’s amended complaint,” McAuliffe wrote.
DiChiara went on leave after a 2016 incident involving an armed man at a traffic stop and was eventually awarded workers compensation benefits. But by 2020, Dillon and Fogarty grew suspicious of DiChiara’s claims, as well as the claims of several other town employees, according to the ruling.
Fogarty sent a binder full of information about several employees, including DiChiara, to then Assistant Attorney General Jane Young about “possible fraudulent activity,” according to the ruling. In the cover letter, Fogarty wrote that DiChiara’s explanation about his PTSD injury was inconsistent.
“It appeared to me that [DiChiara] possibly enhanced the injury when describing what occurred to his providers,” Fogarty wrote.
The New Hampshire Department of Labor’s hearing officer who reviewed DiChiara’s claim had noted that his version of events was “not persuasive.” This statement was included in the binder sent to Young.
However, after several months, Assistant Attorney General Nicole Clay informed the town that none of the information provided about DiChiara and the other employees rose to the level of a crime.
“(T)he information provided does not support a criminal allegation on the part of any Town of Salem employee or former employee,” Clay wrote.
Because the town used the information from the Labor Department’s hearing, and not directly from DiChiara’s medical records, the town did not violate the law in sending that information to the Attorney General, McAuliffe ruled. The town is also immune from DiChiara’s claim of defamation for raising the fraud allegation with the Attorney General when it sent the binder, according to McAuliffe.
Salem’s police department went into meltdown after the town hired Kroll Inc. to perform an audit of the operations. The report found a mismanaged internal affairs and discipline system, insubordination to town officials, and payroll abuses that allowed officers to get regular pay while working outside details.
The town and the state ended up paying millions of dollars investigating several Salem police officers in the wake of the 2018 Kroll report, without any major convictions to show for the time and money.