The executive assistant to Bloomfield’s police chief is suing the town, claiming the town manager disciplined her unfairly, retaliated when she complained and allegedly sexually harassed her.
Wendy Taylor’s lawsuit also alleges that Town Manager Alvin Schwapp, who is a former Bloomfield police lieutenant, along with Town Attorney Andrew Crumbie, a former state trooper, wrongly gave her ex-husband — a state police sergeant — copies of her personal emails to her attorney and her daughter.
Taylor acknowledged she used a town computer to send personal emails, but said it was because she feared her ex-husband. Her suit contends that Police Chief Paul Hammick authorized her to communicate with her daughter, her lawyer and her domestic violence advocate over a town-owned computer, but she was disciplined anyway after Crumbie investigated her.
“Attorney Crumbie is a fraternity brother of Town Manager Schwapp, and a former Connecticut state police officer and colleague of the plaintiff’s … [ex-husband], creating multiple conflicts of interest in regard to the investigation,” the suit contends.
Taylor alleged that leaders of Bloomfield, a predominantly Black community, have discriminated against her and other middle-aged, white female town employees. She was suspended, and when she returned to work Schwapp allegedly sexually harassed her, creating a hostile work environment, she claims.
“Town Manager Schwapp engaged in [alleged] unwelcome physical contact … including pulling her in, for an unwanted hug, grabbing and holding both of her hands, and repeatedly commenting on her appearance,” according to the suit’s claims. “This [alleged] conduct was unwelcome, of a sexual nature, and sufficiently severe to alter the conditions of plaintiff’s employment and create an intimidating, hostile, and offensive working environment.”
The suit, filed last month in Hartford Superior Court, contends that three Bloomfield police officers observed the encounter.
In an email, Schwapp told The Courant “No comment due to pending litigation.” Crumbie did not respond to a request for comment. Taylor’s ex-husband is not named and could not be reached.
The lawsuit is the latest dispute in a contentious year in Bloomfield that’s seen acrimonious town council meetings, a relentless wave of social media battles, a mayor leave office in mid-term, and a former councilman sue the council, claiming it misled voters about the annual budget.
In addition, the town investigated a council member for allegedly living in another community, and the state Freedom of Information Commission issued an uncommonly harsh $1,500 penalty against Schwapp after concluding his testimony in a case was “not credible.”
At the same time, Bloomfield is getting ready to prepare a 2026-27 budget without the usual base documents from fiscal 2024 or fiscal 2025: One audit is more than a year overdue, and the other hasn’t begun.
News of the latest lawsuit fired up the social media arguments, with defenders of the current leadership claiming that a small group of dissidents and complainers is stirring up controversy. On the other side, numerous people have been posting calls for a new town government.
“I’ve been a resident for 50 years. I have never witnessed anything this bad. This is a horrible situation that needs to rectified pronto,” one man wrote on a Bloomfield-centered Facebook post this week.
Taylor’s suit describes her ex-husband as allegedly intimidating, and claimed that she had a restraining order against him in 2024. She used her work email for two years to exchange confidential personal messages, the suit acknowledged.
“Her ex-husband had access to her personal email account and was recording the plaintiff and her daughter in her home … and accessing the plaintiff’s personal cell phone data, leaving the plaintiff feeling unsafe and insecure in her own home,” the suit alleges.
Her ex-husband filed a Freedom of Information request with the town for copies. Taylor said she advised Crumbie she was an alleged domestic violence victim.
“The town released the records in their entirety to the ex-husband, which records included sensitive information regarding the Plaintiff’s divorce from her ex-husband … and [more],” the suit contends.
Soon afterward, Crumbie investigated her writing personal mail on the town’s system.
“It was well known that most employees used their work email for personal emails. The town declined to investigate the other departmental (almost exclusively male) employees because ‘it would take too long,’” the suit claims. “No male employees have been investigated or suspended for five days for personal use of work email.”
Taylor was also disciplined for using a flex work schedule, even though she contends Hammick authorized it. When Hammick sought a pay raise for her to compensate for increased work and responsibilities, Schwapp denied it even though other employees got increases with no additional work, the suit claims.
Shortly after Taylor returned to work on Dec. 20, 2024, Schwapp made allegedly “unwelcome” physical contact with her, the suit claims. It lists three police officers who supposedly saw the incident.
Three days after she complained to an investigator about the incident in June of this year, the town notified her she was subject to a new internal investigation over her connection to a Bloomfield police officer’s promotional dispute, the suit contends. Soon afterward she was diagnosed with PTSD and has been on leave since.
She claims that since Schwapp was appointed in May 2024, he has fired or forced out older white female employees while retaining and promoting younger ones.
“Plaintiff was subjected to disproportionate investigation, unprecedented administrative leave, and severe discipline based on conduct that was known to management, routinely engaged in by other employees without consequence, and directly related to her protected status as a [alleged] domestic violence victim,” wrote her attorney, Eric Brown.
Brown said he had no information about Taylor’s ex-husband. State law enforcement authorities had no information about a trooper named Taylor involved in any alleged domestic complaints, and Brown said he didn’t know if the trooper had a different last name.