BREAKING: Town Manager Fires Plaintiff Actively Suing Him, Bypassing Police Chief and HR
By Peter C. Frank | Editor-in-Chief, the Bloomfield Community Dispatch
April 12, 2026
BLOOMFIELD, CT — Bloomfield Town Manager Alvin D. Schwapp, Jr. terminated the employment of Wendy Taylor, the former senior police administrative assistant who is actively suing him for sexual harassment and retaliation, effective January 8, 2026, according to a Motion for Leave to Amend Complaint recently filed in Hartford Superior Court. Taylor was notified of her termination that day; the method of notification is not specified in the filing.
The Dispatch first reported on Taylor's lawsuit in December 2025. Taylor, a senior administrative assistant who had served the Bloomfield Police Department for over 11 years, filed suit in Hartford Superior Court alleging that Schwapp subjected her to a hostile work environment, sexual harassment, and discrimination based on her sex, race, and status as a domestic violence survivor, and then orchestrated a campaign of retaliation when she reported it. Full background on the original allegations, including the role of Town Attorney Andrew Crumbie—whose appointment as the Town's investigator Taylor's filing characterizes as a conflict of interest due to his fraternity ties to Schwapp—is available in our original report: Lawsuit Accuses Town Manager Schwapp of Sexual Harassment and 'Fraternity' Favoritism. The Motion for Leave to Amend Complaint adds Taylor's January 8, 2026, termination as a central new adverse employment action.
The firing injects severe new liability into the Town's defense, raising immediate questions regarding administrative overreach, conflict of interest, and whether municipal authority was used to retaliate against an employee for filing a legal complaint.
"Irregular Decision-Making" & The HR Bypass
Standard municipal governance dictates that human resources departments or direct operational supervisors manage personnel terminations to insulate the municipality from liability and ensure procedural fairness. Yet, court filings and local reporting indicate that Schwapp—the primary named defendant in the lawsuit—personally executed the termination of his accuser.
In doing so, Schwapp effectively bypassed Bloomfield Police Chief Paul Hammick's operational purview over his own department personnel. According to Taylor's filing, Chief Hammick had authorized Taylor's flexible schedule and the use of town computers for safety reasons related to her domestic violence situation—authorizations that Schwapp and Town Attorney Andrew Crumbie allegedly overruled, leading directly to disciplinary action against her. Additional detail on Chief Hammick's role and Crumbie's alleged conflict of interest is available in our original report.
To understand the legal gravity of this administrative circumvention, the Bloomfield Community Dispatch reached out to Peter Goselin, a Hartford area attorney who chiefly represents employees and labor unions against employers.
"The employees of a municipality are entitled to due process in their employment, meaning that employment decisions are presumed to have some fundamental fairness," Goselin explained. "Where an employee has filed a discrimination complaint and has been subsequently fired, we can expect that the termination decision will be scrutinized. Evidence that the termination was carried out in a way that is inconsistent with normal practice, or lacks a paper trail, or is not based on good reasonable decision-making may be used to prove a retaliatory motivation."
The Retaliation Trap & Taxpayer Liability
The Town of Bloomfield now faces a compounding legal risk that employment attorneys describe as a retaliation trap: even if the defense successfully argues against the initial sexual harassment claims, the act of terminating an employee who reported the alleged abuse can constitute an independent, highly actionable legal violation.
"If an employee is acting in good faith when they oppose what they believe to be an unlawful employment practice, punishing the employee for doing so can be in itself unlawful," Goselin noted.
The financial exposure for the Town is substantial. Goselin clarified that while municipalities are shielded from punitive damages, an employer found liable for discrimination or retaliation can be on the hook for "lost wages, lost value of benefits, reinstatement, or even front pay if reinstatement is not possible. The employee may also seek damages for emotional distress."
The FOIA Disclosure: Alleged Release of Domestic Violence Communications
Compounding the Town's liability is a severe alleged data breach involving Taylor's safety. Taylor is an alleged victim of domestic violence who previously held a restraining order against her ex-husband, a State Police Sergeant.
According to the lawsuit, Taylor used her work computer to communicate with her domestic violence advocate and her attorney because her abuser was surveilling her personal devices. Her ex-husband then filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request with the Town for copies of those emails.
According to Taylor's lawsuit, instead of utilizing available legal exemptions to protect a domestic violence survivor's sensitive communications, the Town fulfilled the FOIA request—providing Taylor's ex-husband with copies of her work emails in their entirety. The Town has not yet filed a formal response addressing this allegation.
Historical Irony: The 1997 Precedent
The Town Manager's actions are steeped in profound historical irony. In the early 1990s, Schwapp was a police officer for the Town of Avon. He resigned and successfully sued that municipality under Title VII, alleging a pervasive and hostile work environment due to racial discrimination. His victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Schwapp v. Town of Avon (1997), set significant federal precedent for hostile work environment claims.
His prior experience as a Title VII plaintiff means Schwapp is personally familiar with the legal framework governing hostile work environment claims—the same framework now being applied to his own conduct as a defendant.
Attorney Goselin cautioned that a courtroom judge views a plaintiff and legal strategy as separate entities. "If the decision-maker in a discrimination case was previously a plaintiff in such a case themselves, whether a judge would allow that into evidence is going to depend on the underlying facts and context," Goselin said. "A judge might decide that the differences between his past experience and the current allegations are too different to permit that kind of comparison."
While it may not survive into courtroom evidence, the irony remains a matter of significant public interest as Schwapp navigates the defense of his own administrative actions.
Awaiting Town Response
Prior to publication, the Bloomfield Community Dispatch transmitted an urgent media inquiry to Town Manager Schwapp, Mayor Anthony Harrington, Police Chief Paul Hammick, Deputy Mayor Lloyd, and Deputy Town Manager Tai-Williams, seeking substantive answers regarding the circumvention of the Police Chief, the HR conflict of interest, and the release of domestic violence communications to an alleged abuser.
Town Attorney Andrew Crumbie, who is named in Taylor's filings, was not contacted for comment as he represents the Town of Bloomfield in this matter.
This article will be updated with any comments (or lack thereof) from Town leadership as they are received.
Update: 9:30 PM — Town Manager Responds
At 9:16 PM, shortly after this article's initial publication, Town Manager Alvin D. Schwapp, Jr. responded to the Dispatch's request for comment.
The Dispatch's inquiry had offered Schwapp a choice: a standard "no comment," or the option to use the specific phrase "the Town does not comment on pending litigation matters." It also invited substantive answers to specific questions regarding the circumvention of the Police Chief, the HR conflict of interest, and the release of the plaintiff's domestic violence communications to her alleged abuser.
Schwapp declined to answer any substantive questions. Rather than selecting either of the offered options, he responded with the following:
"I am certain as the distinguished Editor in Chief, of the renowned Bloomfield Community Dispatch, you of all people realize it is a standard practice for all government agencies who are in pending litigation to not comment on pending litigation. I am hopeful this long-standing practice is not new to you; I therefore have no comment."
Readers will note that Schwapp's response closely mirrors the precise language offered to him in the Dispatch's inquiry — while framing it as an institutional practice this outlet should have anticipated.
Schwapp also used the official municipal inquiry to note that he is actively monitoring the Dispatch's other investigative activities, stating he had "heard" that this reporter had appeared before the state's Freedom of Information Commission the previous week. "I didn't realize your many talents," he added. The reference is notable: it confirms the Town Manager is tracking the Dispatch's regulatory activities — activities that directly concern the Town's own pattern of FOIA non-compliance, as documented in our March 7 report, Constructive Denial.
Neither the Mayor nor the Deputy Mayor had responded to requests for comment at the time of this update.
Alvin Schwapp is so out of control he is becoming a major embarrassment. He is also a legal liability to the town. He needs to be dismissed by this Town Council before he does any more damage. The budget is a mess. It doesn't even comply with charter requirements. There are so many reasons to ditch this guy, including his residency issue. He is in violation of his employment contract by not even living in Bloomfield. Get rid of him, Councilors. I think his decision to fire this employee is blatantly illegal and that he doesn't have the authority to do it. His problem is his ego is so big he thinks he can do anything he wants to do. he can't. He needs to be knocked down a peg or three.
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