By Steve Urbon | SouthCoastToday

WAREHAM — Detective Lt. Donald Bliss has filed suit in U.S. District Court against an array of town officials and one private citizen, seeking unspecified damages for allegedly orchestrating his unjustified firing in February 2009 and ruining his life and the life of his family.

Bliss won a unanimous Civil Service Commission ruling last May, getting his job back along with back pay, which amounted to more than $200,000. His legal expenses were covered by a police defense fund to which he contributed.

The Civil Service trial, conducted by Commissioner Paul Stein, took three days. Stein would later rule that Bliss was wrongfully terminated for “improper personal motives and undue political influence which have no place in a merit-based civil service system.”

That trial did not explore in detail the motivations behind the firing but rather the actions carried out to set up Bliss for termination: allegations of misuse of a cellphone and of improperly showing up in uniform to sell an alarm system (his sideline) to Lisa Bindas of Maple Strings Road.

Bindas is named in the suit along with former acting Town Administrator John Sanguinet and past and present selectmen Bruce Sauvageau, Brenda Eckstrom, Jane Donohue, John Cronan and James Potter.

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By Jaime Rebhan | Wareham Week

Wareham Police Lieutenant Donald Bliss, who was fired in 2009 and reinstated last year by the state Civil Service Commission, has named the town, former interim Town Administrator John Sanguinet, a former Board of Selectmen, and a Wareham resident in a federal lawsuit for their alleged roles in his termination.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court on January 20 by Bliss’ attorney, Andrew J. Gambaccini, alleges that the defendants acted in “various ways so as to bring about the illegal discharge” of Bliss and “attempted to mask the true motivations for their actions through the advancement of unsubstantiated and meritless charges designed to injure Donald Bliss, his career, his reputation, his family and his personal life.”

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By Frank Mulligan | GateHouse News Media

Police Lt. Donald Bliss’s lawsuit is a family matter.

In the complaint filed with the U.S. District Court on Friday, his attorney, Andrew J. Gambaccini, states, “Donald Bliss’s love for the Wareham Police Department and his role within it was a family affair, as his immediate family had taken time to paint the station, his young son had waxed police cruisers and one of his daughters had cleaned offices in the station.”

Not only is Bliss listed as a plaintiff, but his wife and three children are also named as aggrieved parties in the lawsuit lodged against former interim Town Administrator John J. Sanguinet, former Selectmen Bruce Sauvageau, Jane Donahue, Brenda Eckstrom, John Cronan, James Potter, Wareham resident Lisa Bindas and the town of Wareham.

After he was fired in February 2009 from the police department, Bliss “suffered the indignity of returning to his home with trash bags filled with his personal items that had been housed at the station. His family members … still recall that day as the commencement of a traumatic ordeal that extended for more than two years,” according to the complaint.

The complaint states the two-year appeal period between Bliss’s firing and his eventual reinstatement proved to be financially ruinous to the Bliss family.

“The family became inundated with mounting bills, calls from creditors, litigation over unpaid debts, overdue taxes and liens,” states the complaint.

“The family was forced to sell previously cherished and liked items of value on Ebay in order to make mortgage and other payments,” according to the complaint.

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The Worcester, Massachusetts law firm of Reardon, Joyce & Akerson, P.C. announces that, for the third time, Andrew J. Gambaccini, an associate with the firm, has been selected as  a Massachusetts Rising Star by Law and Politics Media, Inc.  The award follows a rigorous, multi-phased process of review and is limited to attorneys under the age of forty who have been members of the bar for less than ten years and who already have distinguished themselves in the practice of law.  No more than 2.5% of the attorneys in the state are given this award, recognition for which is published annually in Massachusetts Super Lawyers Rising Stars Edition and in Boston magazine.

October 17, 2011

By Mary Ann Bragg | Cape Cod Times

ORLEANS – The arraignment of Truro Police Chief John Lundborn on charges of operating under the influence was continued this morning until Nov. 4.

Lundborn, 44, was arrested by members of his own department Friday night after he allegedly drove a Truro Police Department vehicle off Pilgrim Heights Road in Truro and crashed in the woods, according to a police report. He has been charged with operating under the influence and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.

He did not appear in Orleans District Court. His attorney John Vigliotti of Worcester said that Lundborn is currently under medical care.

Outside the courthouse this morning, Vigliotti would not comment on the case to reporters.

“The case is going to be played out in the courts,” he said. “It’s going to be tried in the courts. I’m not going to play the case in the media.”

Asked where Lundborn is currently, Vigliotti would only say that he has “been dealing with his issues.”

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By Jill Harmacinski | Eagle Tribune

METHUEN — A federal judge threw out police Sgt. Larry Phillips’ lawsuit alleging he was slandered, harassed and retaliated against for cooperating with a 2006 FBI investigation involving police Chief Joseph Solomon.

As a result of the decision, Phillips could be held responsible for attorney’s fees for the city, Solomon and other officers named in the case.

In a 20-page decision issued yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro cited insufficient facts, a statute of limitations lapse and other legal deficiencies with Phillips’ lawsuit, filed on Jan. 31, 2011. Tauro ordered the claims dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be re-filed in federal court.

Phillips was seeking $750,000 for stress, anxiety, high-blood pressure, sleep deprivation, and marital problem he claims were the result of becoming victim of a Solomon-led campaign to tarnish his reputation and credibility, according to the suit.

Phillips’ lawyer Alex Cain said he plans to immediately appeal Tauro’s decision and “continue to fight this case.” Cain said another lawsuit will be filed in Essex County Superior Court.

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By Brian Messenger | Eagle Tribune

METHUEN — Lawyers for Joseph Solomon have filed a motion to throw out the city’s appeal of the state Civil Service Commission decision that cleared his return as police chief.

Solomon was fired in 2008 but returned to work last fall, after the commission reduced his termination to a one-year suspension. Methuen appealed the decision in Lawrence Superior Court in August of last year.

But last week, attorneys Andrew Gambaccini and John Vigliotti filed a motion on Solomon’s behalf to dismiss the case.

Gambaccini and Vigliotti filed the motion based on the city’s “complete failure to prosecute this action to the detriment” of Solomon and the commission, according to the motion.

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Worcester law firm Reardon, Joyce & Akerson, P.C. announces that Attorney Andrew J. Gambaccini has been selected by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as a 2011 “Up and Coming Lawyer.”  The award recognizes twenty lawyers from across Massachusetts who have been in practice for ten years or less and “who have already distinguished themselves in some manner and appear poised for even greater accomplishments.”  Gambaccini was honored at an awards ceremony at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts in June, 2011.