Watertown Police Officer Fired After Disciplinary Hearing

A Watertown police officer was fired on Nov. 29 after a hearing found he improperly served a restraining order and lied to superior officers about how the order was served, according to a statement by Town Manager Michael Driscoll.

A disciplinary hearing was held Oct. 19 to determine if the town had just cause to take action against officer Roberto Velasquez-Johnson. The board considered punishment up to an including terminating Velasquez-Johnson.

The hearing was held in public. The town's Hearing Officer wrote a report and Driscoll said he reviewed that and other documents relating to the hearing and made his decision.

"I have concluded that just cause exists to terminate Officer Velasquez-Johnson's employment with the Town for his actions in this matter, effective immediately,
i.e. November 29, 2010," Driscoll wrote in the statement.

The hearing was called to deal with allegations that Velasquez-Johnson improperly served a restraining order, lied to his superior officers about the way the restraining order was delivered and falsely certified in the restraining order documents that the order had been served by hand, according to the statement.

Velasquez-Johnson was asked to deliver a restraining order to a Watertown woman's ex-husband who lived on Commonwealth Road. When no one answered the door, Velasquez-Johnson admits he spoke with the man's downstairs neighbor and then left the restraining order on the doorstep without any further notification, according to an account in the Watertown Tab & Press.