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D.A. calls hiring of Coatesville's chief 'deceptive'

Chester County District Attorney Joe Carroll yesterday called the process for selecting a new police chief in Coatesville "deceptive."

Chester County District Attorney Joe Carroll yesterday called the process for selecting a new police chief in Coatesville "deceptive."

"There is this big show about a selection committee, which the public believed was doing a legitimate selection process," Carroll said in an interview yesterday. "But it appears the selection was taking place behind closed doors."

The candidate who believed he would be named chief at the City Council meeting on Feb. 12, Philadelphia Police Lt. Joel Fitzgerald, 36, said he was "flabbergasted" when he got a call earlier that day saying the job was going to somebody else.

Fitzgerald, who works in the city's narcotics strike force, was the top choice of the selection committee.

City Manager Harry G. Walker III instead chose William H. Matthews, 59, a deputy director of the Police Foundation, a nonprofit headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Coatesville council approved the choice, 6-1.

"I'm in shock right now over this whole thing," said Sharon Hall, a member of the selection committee. "Fitzgerald would have been a tremendous asset to this city."

Fitzgerald said Walker told him that he was "the number one candidate." Now he thinks that his refusal to hire a longtime political figure was the reason Walker changed his mind.

Walker went to an interview with Fitzgerald earlier this year accompanied by Richard Legree, a city constable, Republican party leader, and a man whose run-ins with the law go back three decades.

"Walker told me he wanted me to bring this guy [Legree] on board," said Fitzgerald during an interview yesterday. "No way am I going to hire somebody like that guy." Legree's involvement was first reported Sunday in the Daily Local News of Chester County.

In a statement released yesterday, Walker said he invited Legree to the interview "to give the candidate an honest appraisal of what the new chief would face in Coatesville in terms of both the crime and the political sentiments."

"While Mr. Legree made it clear that he would be willing to be available to assist in a subordinate capacity, it was always clear that Fitzgerald would have the final say on personnel decisions."

Carroll said Fitzgerald's selection was derailed by the meeting with Legree.

But Walker said that after meeting with Matthews, he felt the nonprofit director was a better fit for the city. "He was willing to take a significant pay reduction and immediately relocate with his wife," Walker said in his statement.

Fitzgerald said that if Walker wanted him to move to the city sooner, he should have said so. Since his wife is also a Philadelphia police officer, he said he planned to take a year to permanently relocate, which would have been allowed under the contract.

"I just can't tell you how taken aback I am by the whole process," said Fitzgerald. "I really felt that job was mine.