Settlement approved between Leet and former township police officer

Leet Township will pay about $12,000 to settle an employment dispute with one of its former police officers who was unjustly fired.

The township commissioners unanimously accepted the resignation of part-time patrolman Nicklas Vigliotti on March 26.

He had been with the department for several years and has taken a full-time job in Frazer.

“I thought he did a pretty decent job here,” acting Leet police Chief Brian Jameson said about Vigliotti. “I think he genuinely had a concern for the community, and he did a good job here as far as that goes.”

Commissioners approved the settlement offer in February. It was finalized within the past few weeks.

The settlement agreement, obtained by TribLive through a Right-To-Know request, states the township will pay $8,886.

It represents $12,000, minus required income tax and other withholdings allocated as back pay, and settlement of Vigliotti’s claims, according to settlement documents.

The former officer will keep his ballistic vest and remaining balance of his 2023 clothing allowance. He also waived any claims he may have had against the township as part of the agreement.

Settlement documents indicate the payout was necessary due to Vigliotti being “wrongfully terminated from employment” in December 2021 by former police Chief Michael Molinaro.

“Molinaro unlawfully marked employee’s Act 57 separation form as being terminated for a disciplinary record even though employee was never notified of any type of discipline or termination,” settlement documents read.

“Nor was employee ever formally disciplined or terminated following proper lawful procedures or policies.”

Vigliotti, who worked for the township for 3.5 years, declined to comment about the settlement or his departure from the Leet department when reached March 26.

Molinaro, a Leet officer since 2013 and chief since March 2021, himself was fired on July 25, 2022, at a township commissioners’ workshop meeting.

The termination was ratified at an Aug. 6, 2022, and later upheld by the township’s civil service commission in November 2023.

Civil service vice chairman Curt Bubb said at the time he felt the strongest case made by the township to fire Molinaro was his submission of false information to the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission regarding the termination Vigliotti.

Vigliotti submitted a letter of resignation on Jan. 24, 2022, and later filed a complaint the following month after finding out about the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission separation form.

The Leet Township commissioners refused to accept Vigliotti’s resignation letter and ordered him to be put back on the schedule.

Township commissioners President Martin McDaniel on March 26 said Vigliotti’s resignation was part of the settlement.

“We just had to make it official,” he said. “He got back pay from when he was bounced out. He got taken off (the schedule) without due process and missed so many months of work. We came to an agreement with him.”

An email to Molinaro seeking comment about the settlement and Vigliotti’s resignation was not immediately returned.

Brian Jameson was named interim chief August 2022 and is still in that position.