Shrewsbury police issued Westborough Police Chief Todd Minardi a $505 civil citation for an open container of alcohol in his unmarked police vehicle after an Oct. 23 well-being check, according to records released to Six State Signal.
The citation was written Oct. 26, following a review of surveillance and body-camera footage described in the police report. The citation form classifies the violation as civil, not criminal. The form states that violations under Chapter 90 carry a $5 surcharge for the Public Safety Training Fund. The records do not establish whether Minardi has paid or contested it.
The public police log and dispatch record show the call came in at 12:19 p.m. Oct. 23 about a man sleeping in a vehicle at 507 Boston Turnpike in Shrewsbury. Officers were dispatched a minute later. A witness's written statement says he called 911 after seeing the man remain motionless.
Shrewsbury police Lt. Kevin Caviston wrote that he found Minardi in the driver's seat of an unmarked Ford Explorer. He described two vodka bottles on the passenger seat, one apparently empty and the other uncapped and mostly empty, along with slurred speech and an odor of alcohol. Caviston wrote that the car was off and that Officer Tyler Vlass said the keys were not in the ignition and had not been since Vlass arrived.
In an Oct. 26 supplement, Caviston wrote that body-camera footage showed Minardi holding an uncapped vodka bottle when an officer opened the driver's door. The officer's comments on the citation identify the vehicle as owned or operated by the Westborough Police Department. Six State Signal has read the report but has not independently viewed the footage.
The two Oct. 26 supplements give different accounts of how long the cruiser had been parked. In the first, Caviston wrote that he believed Minardi had stayed at the location from Wednesday, Oct. 21, through Friday, Oct. 23. In the second, after reviewing additional surveillance, he wrote that a gray Ford Explorer he identified as Minardi's unmarked cruiser left Wednesday morning and returned just before 9 a.m. Thursday. He reported seeing it in the same spot during hourly checks of Thursday's daytime footage and Friday morning's footage, but said darkness prevented him from seeing the parking lot after sunset.
The citation cites Massachusetts' open-container law, which prohibits possessing an open alcoholic beverage container in a vehicle's passenger area on public roads or in places the public may enter by right or invitation.
In its Oct. 24 statement, Westborough said it placed Minardi on administrative leave after learning of the Shrewsbury response and was taking steps to retain an outside investigator. The town said then that its deputy police chief was running daily operations. That statement did not identify an investigator or give a timetable for the review.
Minardi and Town Manager Kristi Williams had not responded as of 7:40 p.m. Eastern Oct. 28 to requests for comment emailed that morning. The request to Minardi sought his account, any corrections to the police account and comment on the citation. The town was asked for the current leave, command and outside-investigation status.