Borowski lawsuit against NPD higher-ups dismissed after five years

A Hampshire Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit that Alan Borowski, a lieutenant in the Northampton Police Department, filed in 2020 against his superiors and other officers.

The years-long morass began in 2017, when NPD higher-ups began receiving threatening, anonymous letters that accused Borowski of misconduct — everything from allegations of improper procedure to using steroids. The department suspended Borowski after investigating the allegations, but then an independent arbitrator ruled that the investigation into Borowski was “not fair” and overturned the discipline after Borowski’s union challenged it. Another independent investigation later described the affair, and the subsequent fallout, as plunging the department into “unending turmoil.”

Despite the overturning of his suspension, Borowski sued the department and his superiors over their handling of the matter, alleging a conspiracy to defame him and undermine his career.

Earlier this year, however, a judge disagreed with those claims, throwing out his case.

According to court documents, on April 22, Hampshire Superior Court Judge Bertha Josephson dismissed Borowski’s allegations of defamation, interference with his contract, civil conspiracy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 

Borowski had sued former police chief Jody Kasper, former captain of administration Dorothy Clayton, and current Chief John Cartledge, as well as one other unnamed individual. In his lawsuit, he said that Kasper, Clayton, Cartledge, and other members of the police department had defamed him through various statements, that his superiors made baseless and targeted investigations into him, and that he had suffered an economic loss from his transfer into another position.

Part of Borowski’s allegations were that the department failed to sufficiently investigate who was writing him threatening letters. Court documents revealed that Kasper had a “hunch” that Scott Savino — a former police captain who retired in 2013 amid an alleged timecard-fixing scandal — had written the letters. Borowski has said he played a role in assisting the investigation into Savino. Borowski contended that his superiors should have investigated Savino’s friend, Detective Peter Fappiano, to see if he had any role in writing the letters.

Ultimately, Josephson found that Borowski didn’t have grounds or sufficient evidence to move forward with his lawsuit. 

Borowski did not return messages left on his cell phone this week.

It’s unclear how much the city spent on legal bills related to the case. The city’s liability insurance policy typically covers such lawsuits, though that can lead to higher insurance premiums in the future.

When asked for comment, Cartledge referred The Shoestring to the mayor’s office. Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra did not respond to The Shoestring’s multiple requests for comment.

In 2019, Northampton spent more than $26,000 for a firm to investigate complaints that Fappiano made related to the saga, alleging that Kasper falsely believed he had written the letters and retaliated against him for it. That investigation found no wrongdoing.

The lawsuit isn’t the only reason Borowski has made the news in recent years.

Borowski was previously named in a lawsuit alleging officers used excessive force on, and wrongfully arrested, Jonas Correia, a Black man, in 2013. Northampton settled the case for over $50,000. Borowski was accused of pepper-spraying Correia as he photographed a heated interaction between another officer and a patron outside Tully O’Reilly bar.

Borowski remains on the force. According to Northampton payroll records, he made over $200,000 in the last fiscal year. He has been among the city’s highest paid employees since at least 2013.

divina cordeiro is a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. They are a summer 2025 intern at The Shoestring with support from the Nonprofit Newsroom Internship Program created by The Scripps Howard Fund and the Institute for Nonprofit News.

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