Politics & Government
Town Suspends Six In EMT Case
Town and Police investigation uncovers five dispatchers and one officer who falsified coursework.
Town officials announced Friday that five town dispatchers and a police officer have been or are being suspended for to become emergency medical technicians.
After a five-month investigation, town officials and the Belmont Police Department reported that dispatchers Christopher Murphy, Thomas O'Brien, Michael Tortola, Daniel Walsh, their supervisor Ed Pendergast along with police officer Cory Taylor have either spent or will spend between 30 to 45 days suspended from work without pay in addition to repaying the money the town spent so they could take the tests.
In June, O'Brien, Tortola and Walsh were three of nearly 200 dispatchers the state's Department of Public Health discovered had taken credit for classes they did not attended. The DPH imposed a nine-month ban on the men working as an EMT in July.
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A subsequent town investigation revealed the three other men had accepted pay increases despite failing to do the coursework.
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