{"id":778421,"date":"2026-07-22T19:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/778421\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:22:14","slug":"stoughton-police-chief-brings-accusations-against-town-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/778421\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoughton police chief brings accusations against town manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stoughton police chief brings accusations against town manager<\/p>\n

Deputy named acting chief Wednesday<\/p>\n

\"PhilSTOUGHTON, Mass. \u2014<\/p>\n

An attorney representing Stoughton’s police chief on Wednesday announced a harassment complaint against the town manager, accompanied by an inflammatory statement that appears to include an oblique reference to the Sandra Birchmore case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chief Donna McNamara’s attorney, Leah Barrault, also said the town is “prohibiting” her from completing her duties. <\/p>\n

According to Barrault, McNamara filed a harassment complaint with the Stoughton Select Board on Monday, accusing Town Manager Thomas Calter of “engaging in a pattern of gossip and disparagement against Chief McNamara while also calling and texting her on her cell phone virtually every day for the past two weeks.”<\/p>\n

Barrault also alleges the town issued a false statement on Wednesday, claiming that McNamara voluntarily stepped down. <\/p>\n

A sergeant at the department’s headquarters confirmed to NewsCenter 5 that Deputy Chief James O’Connor was named acting chief on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“Meanwhile, the town manager continues a campaign to assassinate the well-earned reputation of Chief McNamara through a pattern of legally actionable and frankly misogynistic words and actions against the Town’s first female police chief,” Barrault wrote. <\/p>\n

NewsCenter 5 could not find a recent public statement from the town about McNamara. We are attempting to contact town officials for comment. <\/p>\n

According to Barrault, McNamara recently signed on to her third contract with the department and was expected to work through 2028. <\/p>\n

In her statement, Barrault disparaged the town’s “record when it comes to its treatment of women and girls,” which appears to be a reference to the Birchmore case<\/a>. Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell is charged with killing the 23-year-old in 2021 to cover up their sexual relationship, which allegedly began when she was underage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stoughton police chief brings accusations against town manager Deputy named acting chief Wednesday STOUGHTON, Mass. \u2014 An attorney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[117125,12659,331690,4,450,331697,331699,10071,331696,331684,151786,331692,331702,331695,331688,451,331686,2001,139192,202834,331694,3,184025,331701,36496,62525,139193,331693,139194,331691,331700,331689,331698,331685,452,453,331687,6601],"class_list":["post-778421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-accusation","tag-attorney","tag-birchmore-case","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cell-phone-texts","tag-chief-donna-mcnamara","tag-department","tag-disparagement-claim","tag-donna-mcnamara","tag-false-statement","tag-female-police-chief","tag-first-female-police-chief","tag-gossip-allegations","tag-harassment-complaint","tag-headlines","tag-leah-barrault","tag-massachusetts","tag-matthew-farwell","tag-mcnamara","tag-misogynistic-words","tag-news","tag-newscenter","tag-oblique-reference","tag-pattern","tag-police-chief","tag-sandra-birchmore","tag-select-board","tag-stoughton","tag-stoughton-police","tag-stoughton-police-chief","tag-stoughton-select-board","tag-third-contract","tag-thomas-calter","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-town-manager","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}