Female Bridgewater police sergeant sues chief: ‘The retaliation was swift'

While sitting in a TV studio and preparing for an interview with an NBC10 investigative reporter, Sgt. Kelly Chuilli reflected on recent developments in her career as a police officer.

“It’s been one heck of a year,” Chuilli said. “I didn’t see this coming. This was definitely a blind side.”

Chuilli is a combat veteran who has spent nearly 25 years with the Bridgewater Police Department in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

During the course of her career, Chuilli said she has trained a multitude of cadets and served on the hiring board for prospective officers with the department. Several years ago, she received accolades for a mentoring award announced by the Massachusetts Association of Women in Law Enforcement and also serves as director on a regional critical incident stress team.

That’s why Chuilli said she was interested in a leadership opportunity when an opening for both a captain and lieutenant position surfaced last year.

Given her experience, Chuilli told us she felt confident about her chances at a promotion. But that’s when she said something unusual happened.

“Somebody else who was interested in the same position, who was actually my supervisor, approached me and asked me to sign up for the test, but not to actually take the test,” Chuilli explained. “He said he would pay for it.”

Chuilli said she was stunned by the request, which would give that senior officer a better chance at promotion and close out the test by having enough applicants sign up.

She declined the request to skip the test.

“I did sign up for it. I paid for it myself. And I did quite well,” Chuilli said.

Records show Chuilli had the highest score for both the lieutenant and the captain positions. In the next phase of the promotional process, a panel of local police chiefs also recommended Chuilli as the top candidate.

However, Bridgewater Police Chief Christopher Delmonte had the final say in the process. He told Chuilli that he would be promoting a different officer to the lieutenant position.

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“I felt like the whole world had turned upside down at that point,” Chuilli said.

Following the decision, the police sergeant said she was stripped of her duties supervising a team of detectives, and reassigned to a patrol shift. At one point, Chuilli said she had to move items out of her desk and carry her belongings through the department in front of fellow officers.

“It was disheartening and disappointing,” Chuilli described. “It felt like I was being sent a message.”

Because of those allegations, Chuilli is now challenging the promotional decision before the state’s Civil Service Commission. The police sergeant has also filed a lawsuit against the Town of Bridgewater and the police chief, alleging discrimination and retaliation.

Allison Maclellan is Chuilli’s attorney in the cases.

“The retaliation was swift and severe,” Maclellan said. “It is my client’s position that there is no room in the command staff for females. It’s an old boys’ network and it will stay that way.”

Chief Delmonte agreed to sit down with NBC10 to defend the process he has overseen during his 14 years at the helm of the department. Delmonte said he could not discuss the details of promotional decisions like Chuilli’s or respond to specific allegations launched against him and the police department.

“I’ve never retaliated against my officers,” Delmonte said. “I treat everyone fairly. I treat everybody with respect that they have earned and deserve.”

Delmonte told us that in every promotional opportunity within the department, he has selected the best candidate available at that time, while acknowledging that the decisions can be very difficult.

“I have to tell someone something that is disappointing to them and some react to that disappointment in a variety of ways,” Delmonte said.

NBC10 discovered it Chuilli's not the only pending lawsuit against the police chief and the Town of Bridgewater.

Another veteran officer, Matthew Lynch, filed a complaint in federal court, alleging discrimination during the promotional process because of his active-duty status in the Army National Guard. Lynch and his attorney declined to comment for our story.

We asked Delmonte if the public should be concerned about what is happening with the promotional process in Bridgewater.

“I don’t think individual cases in and of itself represent a systemic problem,” Delmonte said. “Grievances or complaints are not necessarily indicative of how a department runs.”

A recording of a Civil Service Commission hearing we obtained via public records request indicates Delmonte attributed his decision to Chuilli’s job performance and communication with the detectives she supervised.

“Over the last year, there have been some performance problems,” Delmonte told a CSC commissioner, while acknowledging he did not place any of those concerns in writing to Chuilli in her bypass letter.

However, four different detectives called to testify during the proceeding described Chuilli as a “good boss,” an “excellent supervisor,” and described her as “very competent and compassionate,” according to transcripts NBC10 reviewed.

The CSC is expected to issue a decision about Chuilli’s appeal by the beginning of 2025. The agency could also choose to investigate the allegations that officers were asked to sign up, but not take the promotional exam.

During the testimony in Chuilli’s case, another veteran police officer said she signed up to take the captain’s test even though she was retiring. Another officer paid for her test and she did not show up, according to testimony.

Chuilli is hoping to receive the promotion that was initially denied and responded to our question about why she chose to speak publicly.

“It’s all about accountability,” Chuilli said. “That what I keep coming back to. This is not OK.”

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