Southampton Town Police Lieutenant Receives $185,000 Settlement From Town

Southampton Town Police Detective Lieutenant James Kiernan was paid a one-time sum of $185,000 and given a promotion as part of the settlement of a $7.5 million lawsuit that he filed against the town and the department’s former chief, William Wilson, in 2014.Previously a lieutenant, Det. Lt. Kiernan will receive a 7-percent bump in pay with the promotion. He will also be credited with 73 days—60 sick days, 11 vacation days and two personal days—that, according to the settlement, can be carried over from year to year indefinitely, and if never used, will be paid out at the time of his retirement at the daily rate of pay at that time.Det. Lt. Kiernan’s promotion went into effect on September 11, 2018, just 10 days before the agreement was reached on September 21.Early last week, town officials refused to disclose the amount of money Det. Lt. Kiernan would receive in the settlement.Russell Kratoville, the town’s management services administrator, said he could not say how much money the settlement would cost taxpayers because the agreement had not been executed. The agreement was executed on Thursday, according to Mr. Kratoville, who provided the settlement documents to The Press on Friday.According to court documents, Det. Lt. Kiernan accused Mr. Wilson of asking him to apply political pressure to help him become police chief.While Mr. Wilson was a candidate for police chief, and later as head of the police department, he, according to the suit, asked Det. Lt. Kiernan to use his political connections to swing Republican officials in favor of his appointment to chief.When Lt. Kiernan, a veteran police officer and longtime town Republican Committee member, declined, the suit alleges that Mr. Wilson mounted a public campaign of misinformation to remove Lt. Kiernan from the department—a campaign, he said in court filings, that cost him months of pay, a potential promotion to second-in-command, and caused him a great deal of pain and suffering.Lt. Kiernan, who was suspended for six months during Mr. Wilson’s tumultuous 18-month tenure with the department, had claimed in the original suit, filed in 2014, that the former chief and members of the Town Board had colluded to retaliate against him for not having used his political connections to support Mr. Wilson’s hiring in the spring of 2011. He alleged that they had conspired to block him from getting a promotion, caused him pain and suffering, and also damaged his reputation because of his suspension and the charges of dereliction of duty becoming public.This is the third settlement to be reached between the Town and a member of the police force in just over a year.In August 2017, Detective Sergeant Lisa Costa received a $300,000 payment to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit she filed against the police department and the town in 2014.In the lawsuit, Det. Sgt. Costa alleged that she had been unfairly passed over for promotions and was sexually harassed as a female cop.Lieutenant Susan Ralph also settled a gender discrimination lawsuit that she filed against the town and the police department in 2015, in May 2018, receiving a payment of $120,000. She was also credited with 22 sick days.Lt. Ralph claimed that she was sexually discriminated against by her male superiors, and a month after filing the suit, she was promoted from sergeant to lieutenant. She was the first woman to ever be promoted to lieutenant in the Southampton Town Police Department.The settlement, signed on March 23, did not indicate an admission of guilt in the legal battle. Still, in the settlement of the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, the town agreed to write Lt. Ralph a $120,000 check and give her a credit for 59 sick days, seven days of vacation and the use of a police vehicle. The town also agreed to provide Lt. Ralph with recommendations from the police department so she could attend training at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy in Quantico, Virginia.