Middleton’s Select Board will meet Friday morning to vote on whether to terminate police Chief William Sampson’s contract amid a performance dispute and a legal fight between Sampson and the town.
Sampson has been chief of police since 2021. He was placed on injured-on-duty leave in June because of an injury suffered during a mandatory firearm evaluation. It was the second time in two years that Sampson was hurt during the evaluation.
In September, Sampson filed a civil lawsuit against the town and Town Administrator Justin Sultzbach, alleging disability discrimination and retaliation, and saying he is being forced out of his job.
The lawsuit said that in September, six days after Sampson returned from his approved leave, Sultzbach gave him an ultimatum, resign immediately or accept a disciplinary Performance Improvement Plan, or PIP. The plan would allow Sultzbach to decide “through a subjective scoring system whether to seek Sampson’s termination.”
Before that, in March, Sampson filed the first of two discrimination claims against the town with the state Commission Against Discrimination.
During an executive session on Aug. 4, the Select Board voted not to renew Sampson’s three-year contract extension, signed in May 2024.
The Select Board held a hearing Wednesday to publicly discuss the contract termination. The town’s charter required the hearing in advance of a vote to terminate.
Sampson’s lawyer, Tim Burke, called it a “sham hearing.”
“It’s clear what the board’s intention is,” Burke said in a phone interview Thursday night. “It was a fate accompli from the beginning.”
Burke said no matter the outcome of Friday’s vote, “the lawsuit is in place and will continue.”
Sampson says Sultzbach rated him unfairly during evaluations and the town failed to follow its own termination procedures.
Sultzbach disputed that claim, saying Sampson’s evaluations reflected his poor performance on the job, according to a recording of Wednesday’s hearing.
Also at issue is a trip Sampson took to Florida in February 2025. He gave a one-day notice and said it was for a family matter. It was later learned that Sampson had interviewed for a position as chief of Port Richey’s police department while he was in Florida.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Sampson worked in local police and sheriff’s departments in Massachusetts (Worcester County) and Florida. He served six years as chief of police in Windsor, Vt., before being hired in Middleton in March, 2021.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Sultzbach said a variety of issues gave him concern about Sampson’s “inability to prioritize department needs over his own personal schedule.”
Sultzbach also accused Sampson of being “vindictive” in a matter concerning a police union member.
Burke told the Select Board that Sampson has elevated the Middleton Police Department out of the “disarray” it was in when he first came on board.
“There was fraud,” Burke said. “There was criminal conduct. There was inappropriate activities on the part of one or more members of this department. He was brought in here with a specific purpose of cleaning up, if you will, this police department and raising it to a level of standard of excellence.”
Burke noted that Sampson now sits as vice president of the New England Association of Chiefs of Police.
“That doesn’t happen to somebody who doesn’t have energy or enthusiasm,” Burke said.
Sultzbach shouldn’t have been conducting Sampson’s performance reviews while Sampson had a pending discrimination complaint with the state against him, Burke argued.
“There was a complete and total lack of objectivity,” Burke told the Globe. “He shouldn’t have participated in the evaluations of the chief.”
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.