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A Westhampton Beach Police officer was suspended last year after he was brought up on disciplinary charges related to a car accident. BRENDAN J. O'REILLY
A Westhampton Beach Village Police officer carried a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, then overturned an SUV he was driving in the village and left the scene of the accident without promptly reporting it, according to a reprimand he received last year from Chief of Police Steven McManus.
The only citation he received from Village Police was for driving a vehicle with an expired registration.
Under a settlement agreement related to the incident, the village suspended Officer Connor Raynor for 30 days, without pay, and he forfeited 168 vacation hours and 12 compensatory hours — the equivalent of another 30 days of suspension.
Raynor and Mayor Maria Moore signed the agreement in March 2022, about four months after the accident occurred.
The Village Board appears to have approved the settlement at a meeting that was not announced to the media, in violation of the state’s Open Meetings Law — and video of the meeting is not available publicly.
The settlement came to light this week as a result of a Freedom of Information request that The Express News Group filed with the village this February seeking all police disciplinary records for the past two and a half years.
Raynor also agreed to be subject to drug or alcohol testing during work hours for three years, and during the three-year period any substantive violation of department rules or the settlement agreement would result in his firing.
Though the letter of reprimand dated March 21, 2022, states that Raynor was under the influence of alcohol and carrying an off-duty firearm prior to the accident, it does not allege that Raynor was under the influence while behind the wheel.
It states that Raynor, while driving with an expired registration on November 28, 2021, was speeding, failing to stay in his lane and tailgating another vehicle before driving on the wrong side of the road. Then, according to the letter, Raynor caused the vehicle to “become airborne and/or to be overturned and/or to be rolled over and/or to be laid on its side,” and in doing so damaged a village resident’s personal property.
“After this occurred, you improperly left the scene of the accident and failed to promptly notify the Westhampton Beach Police Department and/or another appropriate authority that it had occurred,” McManus’s letter continues.
He reportedly walked home from the scene before returning.
The chief wrote to Raynor that the manner in which the officer handled himself demonstrated a lack of respect for the village, the police department and the public at large, and said that in addition to damaging someone’s property, he put the safety of motorists and residents at significant risk. The chief called it the antithesis of how a police officer should behave.
“In sum, your actions were unprofessional and unbecoming of a police officer,” McManus wrote.
An incident report and an accompanying accident report from the day of the accident state that police were called to Montauk Highway and Bridle Path at 6:34 a.m. for a rollover with no injuries. The reporting officer wrote that police officers could not locate the vehicle, so he called Southampton Town Police dispatch for more information and learned that the original call reporting the accident had come from a towing company. The officer then called the towing company, which informed him that a man had requested a tow truck at 6:29 a.m. for a vehicle on its side on Bridle Path.
The officer tried calling the man who had called the towing company but was unsuccessful. Then, according to the incident report, Raynor called the officer at 7:01 a.m. and said he had been in an accident on Bridle Path. The officer was then able to locate the vehicle, which was rolled on its side in a home’s driveway, and Raynor was there waiting. Raynor reported he was uninjured, had been able to exit the vehicle by himself, and no one else was involved.
Raynor told the responding officer that he was northbound on Bridle Path when he fell asleep at the wheel at approximately 6:21 a.m. and woke up when he hit a leaf pile, then overcorrected, jerking the wheel in the opposite direction and hitting a mailbox in front of a home, driving through the front yard. He then struck a tree and a rock and damaged more landscaping at that residence and between that property and the neighboring property, where the vehicle — a 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe registered to a relative of Raynor — came to rest on its side.
McManus was informed of the accident and said not to have the vehicle towed until he arrived on scene, the incident report states. McManus arrived, the tow company was told to take the vehicle to its place of business, and an eJusticeNY check revealed the vehicle’s registration was expired. The chief told the reporting officer to issue a summons.
Raynor was cited for driving with an expired registration, a nonmoving violation. He was not cited for leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, even though he had been reprimanded for “improperly” leaving the scene.
“The department does not comment on personnel issues, but, generally, the threshold for charging an employee with a violation of department policy very often does not rise to the level of a criminal charge,” McManus said in a statement on Tuesday.
The village sought to fire Raynor, and the police department notified Raynor on January 31, 2022, that it was bringing him up on five disciplinary charges. Each charge pertained to committing a rule violation or act of delinquency seriously affecting general character or fitness for office. Each charge included a number of specifications detailing the conduct he was accused of.
The specifications that he pleaded guilty to were included in the reprimand, which is now a permanent part of Raynor’s personnel file. Other specifications not covered by the plea were not included in the reprimand, and they were redacted from a copy of the charges that the village provided to The Southampton Press under the Freedom of Information Law.
A majority of the Village Board approved the settlement agreement in a 3-0 vote during a special meeting on March 18, 2022. Raynor is identified as “Employee # 001096” in the resolution.
The special meeting had not been listed on the village website under the “2022 Trustees Meeting Archive,” and the minutes of the meeting were not available there until after a reporter inquired Monday about their absence. The meeting video is not available on the village’s YouTube channel though videos of other Village Board meetings that occurred the same month are posted. The news media was not directly notified of the meeting, as is required by Open Meetings Law.
Raynor did not respond to a request for comment sent to his village email account on Thursday, April 13.
According to SeeThroughNY, Raynor’s salary in 2022 was $88,763.
