PAWCATCUK, CT — Last spring, Stonington public works employees took syringes they'd found in other locations, placed them in the Donahue Park gazebo, and took pictures of the staged scene, according to a police report.

The report, surveillance videos, and other documents obtained by Patch through the Freedom of Information Act are used in this story.

In the probe, investigators said they found, and surveillance camera footage shows highway workers Patrick Keena and Daniel Oliverio, and others, putting needles in the park's gazebo. Then, in an effort to share evidence that IV drugs were being used in the small family park on the banks of the Pawcatuck River, took, and shared, the staged photos, the report states. Police wrote that the syringes "weren't actually found in the park, but were relocated to the gazebo to be photographed."

Those photos were sent to Stonington Board of Education member Chris Donahue, son of park namesake Pawcatuck Fire Chief Steven Donahue.

Donahue shared those photos on his Facebook page, noting that cops and town officials were lax in policing drug use in the park, the report states.

When asked if he knew the photos were of a stage scene, Donahue told Patch that he "thought the needles were found in Donahue Park."

Neither Oliverio nor Keena, or any other public works staffers involved, will face discipline, Stonington First Selectman Danielle Cheseborough said, according to reporting by Joe Wojtas of the New London Day. She said the workers did not violate any policy "at the time." The incident took place in late April, per the police report.

Cheseborough told Patch Thursday afternoon that what the workers did, they regret.

She said that the day Donahue posted the photos to Facebook, she and other town officials, as well as their labor attorney and others met and continued to meet. And, interviews of all that were involved were undertaken. The workers, she said, were acting on "emotion," when after discovering hypodermic needles used to inject drugs in areas near the park, they used "poor judgment."

Everyone involved, she said, "Up front, admitted they made an emotional" and unwise decision.

Seven syringes in a plastic bottle

On April 27 at 11 a.m., video shows, Olivero and other town employees staged the photos to make it appear as if the syringes were found in the park near the gazebo where people congregate, police wrote.

Workers had collected a total of seven syringes, five, from under a pile of mulch near the park. Those syringes were put in a Gatorade plastic bottle. Olivero and others did admit the needles were not found in the park, on its lawn, around the gazebo or benches inside the park, the report states.

Olivero said he'd found needles in the past, and he did not expect the pictures of the needles to "become such a big deal," according to the police report. He also told a police investigator that the "syringes might contain heroin or fentanyl," the report states. When asked why he believed that, he said he "saw black stuff in them, but he said he doesn't know what heroin or fentanyl looks like. He just assumed that's what it was," the report continued.

Police said what the video shows is workers planting syringes in the gazebo, placing them in a line on the wooden floor of the gazebo, and then taking pictures of them before replacing them in the Gatorade bottle.

Cheseborough told Patch that that April weekend was the anniversary of the death of the former fire chief. She said some highway workers were very close to the Donahue family and, "When they found needles in the area, they were upset and reacted. They admitted that they made a mistake, and we believe them. They are good people, and good people make mistakes."

But what Cheseborough said "hurt the most," was when Donahue posted those photographs to Facebook. She said that move "hurt the efforts of police and human services"

"(The town workers) realized that what they'd done put police and (the town's Human Services Department) in a tough spot," she said. Cheseborough explained, and the police reports obtained by Patch show, that both agencies had been working on issues related to homelessness, substance abuse and metal health for a year or more. And, they'd made "big strides with a group of people downtown that were suffering."

Police increased patrols in the park from May 3 to June 3. In total, of 77 patrols, they found no issues in 69 of those. In the remaining patrols, issues included littering, an open container and a trespassing charge. They were no narcotics-related incidents.

"Substance abuse, homelessness, mental health are a challenging part of society and police and the human services department have been working hard on this," she said. "So at the end of the day, human services and police were hurt by Chris' post."

"Exaggerated at best, but likely worse, fabricated."

In a letter to Police Chief Jay DelGrosso, Stonington Police Lt. Michael Peckham said that the syringes incident was, "exaggerated at best, but likely worse, fabricated."

He noted that workers' actions should be reviewed. He noted that "at no time" did the town's Public Works Department contact the police department to "report this public safety incident." He said their actions, or inaction, "interfered with the police department's ability to send syringes to the state lab to test for the presence of heroin."

He also said that Donahue, as a public official, should have known better than to share those images on his Facebook page without confirming they were legitimate, according to the report.

Ultimately, police concluded no crime had been committed by workers. But also shared that it's never been made clear what happened with those needles: were they ever disposed of properly, and if yes, by whom.

Since this incident, the town has instituted policy that requires highway and other town workers to alert police if they come across syringes.

Stonington Police Dept. Don... by Ellyn Santiago

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