The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has rejected claims by two former Wareham Police officers that they were removed from the department’s Detective Division in 2009 because of racial bias.

MCAD Hearing Officer Betty Waxman ruled on Aug. 14 that Detectives Wayne Sylvester and Dennis Damata were demoted not on the basis of the race but because then Police Chief Richard Stanley had “racially-neutral reasons for being dissatisfied with Sylvester’s performance as a detective and sought to improve the detective division by changing the officers who staffed it.”

Sylvester is black and Damata, a former Wareham selectman, is white. The racial bias claim stemmed from the fact that a third demoted detective, Walter Correia, is black. The three detective swho replaced them were white. Damata claimed that his removal was an effort to avoid claims of racial bias.

The complaint dates back to a contentious period in Wareham shortly after long-time Chief Thomas Joyce, under fire from some members of the Board of Selectmen, chose to retire and was replaced by Stanley.

According to court documents, when Stanley took control of the department,

Stanley said he was dissatisfied with the unaggressive nature of the detective division and wanted to go “a whole different direction.” This meant detectives would start issuing search warrants “for everything,” engaging in aggressive investigations, following up on cases and handling problems with drugs, pawn shops and motels.

Stanley gave Sgt. Douglas Jacinto control over the detective division in October of 2009 and after consulting with other officers, Jacinto removed Sylvester, Damata and Correia form the detective division due to their lack of following up on cases. He replaced them with detectives William DeSilva, Al Courchesne and Michael Smith.

While some officers who testified said Sylvester was a good detective, many said his investigative and reporting skills were not up to snuff. According to court documents, in 2008 and 2009, Sylvester was assigned 45 cases and documented seven, while Damata was assigned 55 and documented 37. The following year Courchesne was assigned 113 cases, and documented 101. Smith was assigned 112, documented 105, and DeSilva was assigned 157 cases and documented 145.

Jacinto testified that he removed Damata along with Sylvester and Correia because he couldn’t remove two detectives and allow the third one to stay. He said he “needed to do a clean sweep to get things done the way the chief wanted.”

Sylvester, who is of Cape Verdean descent, said he was offended by Stanley the first time they met in 2009 when Stanley asked him about a shooting in Boston involving Cape Verdeans. However, Stanley said he was concerned with the possible spill-over effect from the crime at the upcoming Onset Cape Verdean Festival.

After his reassignment, Sylvester said he was embarrassed and depressed and had begun seeing a therapist in January of 2010. He stopped going to work in January and used personal days, sick time and vacation to continue receiving a paycheck through July 1, 2010. Sylvester retired from the Wareham Police Department at the beginning of 2013.

Waxman wrote in her decision, “In my judgement, these matters do not indicate racial animus but rather the Town’s struggle to find the least confrontational and least critical way to replace him.”

On June 3, 2010 Sylvester’s attorney requested sick benefits, which were denied. Sylvester said this was evidence the department retaliated against him after he filed a complaint. But Stanley and the Town Administrator Mark Andrews approved his benefits, it was Sylvester’s union who decided to deny him benefits.

He said the department also retaliated against him by taking away his department-issued gun on May 24, 2010. But Waxman said this action was reasonable rather than retaliatory. She said it was reasonable because the lieutenant in charge of firearms licenses was unable to get clarification from Sylvester’s therapist on her description of his “intense feelings of anger and rage.”

Damata said he was removed from detective duty to deflect any accusations from the two black detectives that the demotions were based on race.

He said that Jacinto told him, “If I leave you in there, [Stanley] says I’m gonna start getting trouble from them… they’re gonna start their racial sh--.” Damata said the “them” referred to the department’s two black detectives, Sylvester and Correia.

Damata retired effective Feb. 4, 2010 and was appointed as a special police officer, allowing him to work road details. He said he was passed over for those assignments by Sgt. Chris Park, but began being put on details after it was brought to the attention of then Lt. Kevin Walsh.

Waxman said that since Sgt. Park said he passed over Damata because he had “backstabbed” people in the department and was difficult to supervise, “it appears that he was influenced predominantly by personal dislike” as opposed to a retaliation.

In the case of Damata’s discrimination claim and Jacinto’s “racial sh--” comment, Waxman said she “was not convinced that he uttered those words.” She said when Jacinto testified that he couldn’t get rid of two officers and let the third stay, “he was referring to the need to impose new standards by using new personnel.”