Councilman Comments on Burt Case

Former Cumberland Police Captain James Burt is facing 11 counts of assault and misconduct against female officers on the city force. The captain was dismissed from duties some months ago, as reported by WCBC. Council Member Rock Cioni was contacted by WCBC to find out why the mayor and council did not publicly address the situation, as it was unfolding…

“Well, I think the thing that people don’t understand is that when you’re sitting there in a meeting and the attorney says do not say anything about this especially when it’s a personnel matter and especially when there might be legal stuff happening with an employee, that’s all we hear and that’s what we do. We don’t comment on it, period.”

Cioni said that anything the Mayor or council would share could be damaging to all parties involved…

“It cannot be publicly addressed because of the nature of what’s going on. We can’t be, as elected people, we can’t be seen as trying to influence this one way or the other. And anything we might say could be absolutely wrong.”