The chief of the Brookline Police Department was fired Friday by a unanimous vote of the town’s Select Board following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.
Ashley Gonzalez, who was sworn in as chief on June 1, was terminated following a disciplinary hearing, town officials said in a statement.
The Select Board made the move after a consulting firm recommended firing Gonzalez “after finding multiple admitted, corroborated and sustained allegations of sexual harassment against female employees of the Brookline Police Department in violation of town policies,” the statement said.
Gonzalez was put on paid administrative leave on Aug. 5, shortly after town officials received reports of the allegations, the statement said.
Later that month, Brookline Police Deputy Superintendent Jennifer Paster, who has been with the department for more than two decades, was chosen by the Select Board to serve as acting chief.
In a statement Friday, the Brookline Police Union accused the board and its chair, Heather Hamilton, of putting politics before merit in not hiring Paster as chief last year and instead mounting a nationwide search.
The union called on the Select Board to immediately install Paster as the town’s permanent police chief and said Gonzalez’s firing was “another reminder of Heather Hamilton and the Select Board’s failed leadership.”
Hamilton said Friday that the board had followed a standard municipal practice last year when it hired an outside search firm to recruit and review candidates, including checking their personal and professional backgrounds.
“I have no idea whether or not he has done what he is accused of doing before, because we have absolutely no evidence from anyone that he has done this in prior positions,” she said in a phone interview late Friday afternoon.
“I think what the union is really trying to say is that we should have just gone with an internal candidate,” Hamilton said. “And in this day and age, that is nepotism. We would have been accused of nepotism if we had not done a real search to find the best.”
She said board members initially “had very high hopes” for Gonzalez.
“He seemed — he seemed — very collegial and understanding,” Hamilton said. “It is very troublesome how quickly he revealed himself. I just am very appreciative that the two female complainants felt comfortable enough coming forward.”
Gonzalez had been chief of the Austin, Texas, Independent School District Police Department since 2018, according to a Brookline statement at the time of his hire. Before that, he was with the police department in Norwalk, Conn., which he joined in 1988, then rose through its ranks to become deputy chief.
Town Administrator Mel Kleckner told the Select Board last month that Gonzalez received “outstanding professional references from a wide range of stakeholders.”
Gonzalez described himself as a “charismatic, collaborative, and inclusionary law enforcement executive,” in a copy of his resume released by Brookline when he was hired.
Comprehensive Investigations and Consulting — a firm whose partners include former Secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Daniel Bennett and former Massachusetts State Police Colonel Kerry Gilpin — conducted an independent review and determined that Gonzalez violated the town’s policy against discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation, as well as “Brookline Police Department rules and regulations against conduct unbecoming a police officer on multiple occasions,” the town’s statement said.
Town officials posted a redacted version of the firm’s investigative report online for the public to view.
According to the report, one Brookline Police Department employee said on June 2 — the day after Gonzalez was sworn in as chief — Gonzalez came into her office and said he noticed she had been on vacation and allegedly remarked: “Oh, you’re a [crude term for an attractive woman].”
The employee said she was stunned and disgusted by the comment.
“I think I was in shock, but I was just so insulted, like it made me feel awful,” the employee stated in the report. “I was embarrassed. No one was around, I was just like, I was scared, well not scared, but I was like grossed out. I was just like oh my God, this is my boss day 1. His literally first day in the office with me.”
The employee described another incident that allegedly occurred on the chief’s second day of work, when she was sitting at her desk.
“He comes around and stands over my left shoulder and shows, you know, on his iPhone, plays a video and it’s his daughter like in a position, it reminded me of like Cirque du Soleil, like you know, her legs are behind and this and that,” the employee said in the report. “I said, ‘Wow that’s amazing. Good for her that she can do that. That’s amazing that she can bend her body like that.’ And he’s standing right over me and he goes, ‘I bet your husband wishes you could bend like that.’”
The employee stated that the alleged remark “made me a little nervous. I don’t mean I was nervous. I was upset, you know, to talk about my husband, he doesn’t even know my husband, doesn’t even know me!”
According to the report, the employee described the chief’s comments and behavior toward her as “degrading and creepy.”
John Hilliard of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him @jeremycfox. Emily Sweeney can be reached at emily.sweeney@globe.com. Follow her @emilysweeney and on Instagram @emilysweeney22.