By Charlie McKenna
masslive.com
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — North Andover’s embattled police chief requested the city’s governing physique to place him on go away Thursday to permit for a whole investigation of his conduct and decision-making, in accordance with a letter he despatched the Select Board that was offered to MassDwell.
Town Manager Melissa Murphy-Rodrigues confirmed the board voted to put Chief Charles Gray on go away throughout an govt session at its Thursday night time assembly.
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Gray’s go away from the division comes after two unions representing North Andover cops declared they now not had confidence in his management. He has served as police chief since 2016.
The no-confidence vote was taken within the wake of former North Andover Police Officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons‘ acquittal on an assault with a harmful weapon cost final month. Her attorneys have since indicated they intend to file a lawsuit towards the city.
In his letter, Gray mentioned he had the “utmost confidence that a thorough and impartial investigation will exonerate me of the allegations made and will confirm the appropriateness of my conduct and decision-making.”
“Out of an abundance of caution and in order to avoid even an appearance of influencing the investigation, I also suggest that I be placed on administrative leave pending the conclusion of the investigation,” the letter reads.
The cost towards Fitzsimmons was associated to an incident from June 2025 throughout which she was shot by a colleague who was serving her a restraining order taken out by her then-fiancé.
Prosecutors accused Fitzsimmons of pulling out a gun and attempting to fireplace it on the officer. During her trial, she testified that she pointed the gun at her personal head in an try to take her personal life.
The unions’ assertion asserting the vote cited a “recent publicized case” involving a number of officers for example of Gray’s “pattern of leadership failures,” however didn’t reference Fitzsimmons by title. Members of the unions couldn’t endure the police chief’s “corrosive and incompetent leadership,” they mentioned.
“We can no longer remain silent while operating under a toxic culture of vindictiveness and professional stagnation,” the assertion reads. “This vote is not about wages, benefits or other traditional labor issues — it is the unavoidable consequence of years of failed leadership, no leadership, and outright inaction.”
The unions additionally highlighted what they described as a failure by Gray to acquire body-worn cameras for officers and accused the chief of dragging his ft on the implementation of a complete coverage governing officer-involved shootings.
The lack of body-worn cameras for officers was a sticking level within the Fitzsimmons case and was highlighted by Judge Jeffrey T. Karp when he acquitted her.
“Perhaps the commonwealth could have easily met its burden if the officers had been wearing body cameras,” Karp mentioned.
In a press release earlier this month, Gray blamed “startup and program maintenance costs” for preserving body-worn cameras “out of reach” for the division. He indicated it was a precedence for the city in its coming funds season.
In 2021, Massachusetts established a Law Enforcement Body-Worn Camera Program, which permits police departments to use for state grant cash to both create a body-worn digicam program of their departments or increase an present one.
The program doled out grant funds to departments for 5 years till it led to 2026.
North Andover by no means utilized for or obtained grant funding by way of that program or some other, a spokesman confirmed. The division did obtain funds by way of the American Rescue Plan Act, which had been used for pole and avenue cameras.
Earlier this month, the police division’s Facebook web page was used to touch upon a submit from a consumer named “Gator Boy,” who shared an NBC10 Boston news story about Fitzsimmons’ plans to sue. The remark learn “In other shocking news!”
The division blamed the submit on a former worker and briefly took down its complete Facebook web page.
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