NH fire chief cleared of wrongdoing in suspensions

2 fire department employees had filed complaints about the Chichester volunteer fire chief

May 16, 2010 07:50 AM

By Matthew Spolar
The Concord Monitor

CHICHESTER, N.H. — Chichester fire Chief Gilbert Vien has been cleared of wrongdoing after complaints from within the department kept him off the job for the past three months.

“I knew this would be the outcome,” Vien said. “There appear to be some town officials that are trying to hurt my good name.”

Assistant Merrimack County attorneys Ashlie Hooper and George Stewart confirmed Friday that their office would not be moving forward with complaints filed against Vien, which were sent to the county for investigation to avoid a conflict of interest at the local level.

“We are absolutely not pursuing any of the charges,” Hooper said.

Both she and Stewart would not elaborate on what the complaints were or why they decided not to charge Vien.

Chichester has a volunteer fire department, and the chief receives an annual stipend of about $5,600, former selectman Stephen MacCleery said.

In February, Vien took a voluntary leave of absence after successive complaints were filed against him by department employees. First, Daryl Wyatt, a former emergency medical technician, alleged he had been wrongfully fired by Vien.

Wyatt said he was fired for attending an EMT training session in July 2009 while suspended from the fire department. He said he was suspended because Vien told him he was under investigation by state emergency medical services officials after his performance a month earlier while responding to a drug overdose.

But Wyatt said a state EMS coordinator later wrote that no investigation had taken place and that he had acted “appropriately up to the level of his certification.”

The second complaint against Vien occurred just days after Wyatt’s. On Friday, Feb. 5, an incident took place that led to another fire department employee filing a complaint with the local police, said MacCleery, who was chairman of the selectmen at the time.

MacCleery has declined to comment on the nature of the incident, but later that day the selectmen held an emergency meeting at which Vien took his leave of absence. Weeks later, Vien told the selectmen he wanted to return from his self-imposed absence, but MacCleery said the selectmen objected and placed him on administrative leave pending the outcome of the complaints.

Vien said he was told by one of his attorneys Friday afternoon that he would not be charged. He declined to comment on whether he would take legal action against his accusers.

“I have hired attorney Bruce Marshall for this situation, which we will be handling in the next couple weeks,” he said.

MacCleery said he was “very happy” to hear that Vien had been cleared of wrongdoing. He said the current selectmen should rescind Vien’s placement on administrative leave.

“I see no reason why he would not be reinstated as chief,” MacCleery said. “How could you can somebody for false accusations?”

Selectman Mike Paveglio, who defeated MacCleery in March’s election, said he had “no reaction” to the decision not to charge Vien.

Paveglio, the fire chief who retired before Vien took over, said he would not speculate about reinstating Vien until he had spoken with the other two selectmen, Richard DeBold and Chairman Jeffrey Jordan, neither of whom could be reached for comment.

Deputy fire Chief Alan Quimby has served as the interim chief since Vien stepped down. He said that members of the department will likely have concerns about Vien’s return, and the selectmen should take that into consideration before deciding on whether to reinstate Vien.

“I hope they would ask the membership what they felt prior to doing anything like that,” he said.