Long-running contention over a high-ranking job at town hall has included a complaint to the attorney general, two lawsuits, threats of arrest and a tense encounter with police, but is on track to end Tuesday when voters elect someone else to the position — because the woman at the center of the controversy won’t be on the ballot.
The battle over the position of North Canaan’s town clerk in this rural town of about 3,200 people has become so convoluted that not everyone agrees whether Jean Jacquier — who was elected in 2023 — still holds the job.
Town leaders contend that she quit months ago, a Superior Court judge has described her as “on leave” and Jacquier herself argues that she’s the victim of wrongful suspension and is ready to go back to work.
The municipal website offers yet another view: It still lists her holding the office. The website also has her assistant listed as Marilisa Carmody, even though everyone agrees she resigned two weeks ago.
What’s clear is that Jacquier walked out of town hall in February in a dispute with First Selectman Brian Ohler, then stayed away for months. She found she wasn’t welcome when she tried to return in mid-August: Ohler had changed the locks to her office, and warned her that she’d be arrested if she tried to get in.
When Jacquier returned Sept. 29, Ohler called state troopers with a trespass complaint, and they directed her out of the building.
Exactly when the dispute began is unclear, but Jacquier was a town employee long before that. She served as assistant town clerk for 24 years before being elected town clerk in 2017 on the Republican ticket.
Ohler, also a Republican, won office just two years ago. He’d held the first selectman’s job for less than two months when he filed a complaint in January of 2024 with the attorney general accusing Jacquier of unethical work.
Jacquier argued that the town is required to cover her legal costs to address the complaint; she sued when it wouldn’t pay, and her case is still pending in Torrington Superior Court.
Last fall, Deputy Associate Attorney General Maura Murphy sustained most of Ohler’s complaints but took no action.
She wrote “We thoroughly investigated the allegations and found evidence of misconduct and neglect of duty in three areas: improper security of the vault outside of the town clerk’s hours of operation; improper posting of campaign materials in town hall; and untimely stamping of documents received by the town clerk’s office.”
The office took no action against Jacquier, but directed she tighten her office’s procedures and also review professional standards.
“Posting campaign materials for a candidate in town hall during operating hours can constitute a violation of federal and state law and can undermine confidence in the electoral process,” Murphy wrote.
Jacquier left town hall in early February and did not return to work. Selectmen decided in March that she’s forfeited her job; they stopped her pay and ultimately brought in a town clerk from Torrington part-time to head the office temporarily. Jacquier’s attorney advised the town that she hadn’t abandoned her job and would be returning to work.
Republicans this year chose a different candidate for town clerk in the Nov. 4 election: Krysti Segalla. Jacquier meanwhile won the Democratic endorsement to run for re-election.
But there was a problem with the official endorsement paperwork for Jacquier and finance board candidate Carol Overby. When Democrats filed the documents July 23, they’d omitted listing which offices the two were seeking. Two weeks later — after the state’s deadline had passed to correct such errors — Ohler sent a copy of the paperwork along with a complaint to the secretary of the state’s office, which concluded Jacquier and Overby couldn’t appear on the ballot.
Jacquier and Overby sued to get onto the ballot, calling the paperwork omissions just technical oversights. But a judge disagreed, and ruled Sept. 25 that Jacquier and Overby wouldn’t be on the ballot.
Meanwhile, Jacquier had tried to go back to work in August and was told she’d be trespassing if she entered her office. The next month, state troopers were called when she appeared again at the clerk’s office.
Jacquier claims Ohler falsely told police that she’d quit her job and a court order prohibited her from returning. Ohler contends that she hasn’t been town clerk since March, and that she made another employee feel unsafe with messages.
Jacquier maintains that she never resigned, and that Ohler deliberately used a minor paperwork error to keep her off the ballot so Segalla would be assured of winning on Tuesday.
The ballot also includes a referendum question to make the town clerk an appointed rather than elected job.