Milford Police Chief Terminated Over Traffic Stop: Select Board

MILFORD, MA — The Milford Select Board has voted to formally terminate Michael Pighetti as police chief following a January traffic stop along Congress Street.

The Milford Select Board voted unanimously last week to terminate Pighetti's contract, Town Manager Richard Villani said in a Tuesday news release. Pighetti was placed on leave in February with James Falvey elevated to take the chief job.

On Jan. 28, Pighetti used a town-issued car to pull over a driver along Congress Street after watching the driver run a red light. Milford officers also responded to the incident and issued the driver a ticket.

The traffic stop was unlawful, according to the Select Board, because Pighetti is the department's chief administrative officer and does not have police powers.

"As a result of a finding that the actions and inactions of Michael Pighetti on Jan. 28, 2021, and thereafter as it relates to his stopping a motorist utilizing flashing blue lights and a siren, retrieving the operators documents, to include a passport and the vehicle registration and then failing to adequately and appropriately supervise his subordinate officers as they addressed the motorist whom he had stopped unlawfully, contrary to his appointed authority as Administrative Police Chief and in violation of (i) his employment contract; (ii) the determinations of the MPTC and (iii) the Rules and Regulations of the Milford Police Department," the Select Board said in a statement Tuesday.

Pighetti was hired as interim chief in 2019 after the previous chief, Tom O'Loughlin, now a Select Board member, left the job. Falvey was also in the running for the interim chief job.

After a nationwide search, a town board offered the chief job to Baltimore police Maj. James Rhoden Jr. After Rhoden turned down the offer, Pighetti was hired in March 2020 as the permanent chief.

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