EAST FALMOUTH — The former Franklin County sheriff has been fired from the East Falmouth Police Academy, where he started working as part-time director in February.
Christopher J. Donelan, who retired at the end of January following 14 years at the helm of the Franklin County Jail and House of Correction in Greenfield, was terminated earlier this month by the Municipal Police Training Committee, which had previously suspended him without pay pending an investigation into “inappropriate conduct” between staff and student officers. Donelan said he had been working at the academy for about four weeks at the time of the suspension.
“The Municipal Police Training Committee remains deeply committed to providing a safe, professional training environment grounded in integrity, respect and accountability. Our internal review into concerns raised at the East Falmouth Academy has concluded and appropriate personnel actions have been taken in alignment with our values,” the Municipal Police Training Committee wrote in a statement. “The corrective steps taken reaffirm our steadfast commitment to maintaining respectful and accountable training academies that support our student officers and uphold the highest standards of law enforcement service.”
Donelan was reportedly fired for Instructor Code of Conduct violations pertaining to hazing, harassment or misconduct. Academy Coordinator Edward A. Dunne, who was suspended at the same time as Donelan, was also dismissed. Concerns were raised by agencies that had student officers attending the academy’s recruit officer course.
On Wednesday, Donelan said in a phone interview that he is “shocked and stunned” by the decision. He said he was not informed of any specific policy or law violation.
“That says, ‘We investigated for six months and couldn’t find anything, so we had to drum something up,'” he said, adding that he was told he fostered a climate that was too harsh.
According to a written statement from Donelan, the investigation focused on two events on different days in February. He explained that on Feb. 7, staff instructors took police recruits to a grassy area next door to the academy building for physical activities, including lunges, burpees (a squat thrust with an additional stand between repetitions) and bear crawls.
“It was February, so there was frost and muddy areas in the grass, so uniforms got wet and dirty,” Donelan wrote. “One [officer’s] jacket got ripped.”
He wrote that a similar incident occurred on Feb. 21.
Donelan wrote that Fall River’s then-acting police chief complained to the Municipal Police Training Committee that her officers were being mistreated. The nine staff instructors and 51 recruits were subsequently interviewed by state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security investigators.
Lt. Matthew Mendes, commander of the Fall River Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards, said in a phone interview that the department’s recruits complained to their assigned training coordinator, who relayed the issues to Chief Kelly Furtado, who in turn informed the Municipal Police Training Committee. Mendes said he did not want to speculate on the complaints’ specifics, but that Donelan and Dunne’s behavior was “not [within] the guardrails of what the instructors should have been doing.”
Donelan said he does not know what his future holds. He splits his time between Greenfield and Cape Cod, and he said he was looking forward to training police recruits during winters and having summers off. He mentioned he cannot appeal his termination because he was a contracted employee. He said he had signed a one-year contract.
Donelan said he is most frustrated that, after 37 years in public service, online searches of his name now result most prominently in articles about his suspension.
During his time in Franklin County, Donelan was credited with transforming the Franklin County Jail and House of Correction from a typical facility focused on incarceration to one with a trauma-informed treatment model.
“I think we’ve transformed the way people look at and approach corrections generally,” he said in early January, mentioning that he also fostered a relationship between the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and local law enforcement that didn’t exist before he took over.
Donelan represented the 2nd Franklin District in the state House of Representatives seat before becoming sheriff. He also previously worked as a police officer in Orange and South Hadley, and was a probation officer in both Orange District Court and the Franklin County Community Corrections Center.
Gov. Maura Healey appointed Lori Streeter, the Franklin County Jail and House of Correction’s superintendent and special sheriff since 2014, as Donelan’s interim replacement until the 2026 election. Then, whoever wins that race will serve for two years and can determine if they wish to run again in 2028, which will begin a new six-year term.