GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Police chief Leonard Campanello, known nationally for creating an “angel program” to combat opioid addiction in Massachusetts, was fired Monday, accused of attempting to “purposely mislead” investigators looking into his relationships with two unidentified women.

In a Monday afternoon press conference, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said Campanello falsely claimed to have turned over his cell phone and all copies of emails and other documents the city wanted for its investigation.

“The integrity of our public officials is critical,” Romeo Theken said. “The fact that he lied to investigators about what happened to his cell phone is not acceptable.”

The chief was fired for concealing documents and erasing emails and texts and for not turning over his city-owned phone, not for issues with his personal life, the mayor said.

Romeo Theken said the first woman came to her on Sept. 6, expressing concern for her safety. On Sept.9, a third party reported her concern about Campanello’s alleged relationship with another woman.

‘Lost confidence’

The mayor said records indicate an inappropriate number of calls and text messages on Campanello’s city-issued phone. Attorney Leonard Kesten, serving a special counsel for the city, said records indicate that the chief and the first woman exchanged as many as 634 text messages in a single day.

In the course of concealing that evidence, Romeo Theken said, Campanello lied about having turned over his phone, suggesting it had been taken from his office. Campanello’s attorney, Terrence Kennedy, then called the city to notify officials that the phone had shown up in an envelope at his office, with overnight delivery and a return address of the Gloucester police station.

The city’s investigation into the disappearance and shipment of the phone found Campanello himself had mailed the phone from the Everett post office nearly an hour away. The contents of the phone had been destroyed.

“I have lost confidence in Chief Campanello,” Romeo Theken said, “as a result of his actions in destroying evidence contained in the cell phone and especially in deceiving the city by suggesting that other employees of the Gloucester Police Department had broken into his office.”

Campanello has the right to a hearing within 30 days, as outlined in his contract, Kesten said.

A ‘witch hunt’

In a prepared statement, Kennedy, called the investigation a “witch hunt.”

“The reasons given by the city for terminating the contract had nothing to do with the original inquiry they were conducting,” Kennedy said. “Chief Campanello intends to hold the city of Gloucester to its contractual obligations despite the fact that throughout this process, representatives of the city continually stated they didn’t care about his contractual rights.”

The announcement of Campanello’s ouster came less than three weeks after Romeo Theken had placed Campanello on indefinite paid administrative leave the night of Sept. 13.

The mayor and the city’s human resources department had then hired Wakefield, Massachusetts-based attorney Thomas Mullen to lead an investigation into Campanello’s actions. The city forwarded information and materials pertaining to that investigation — and one into the Sept. 8 indefinite paid administrative leave of Detective Sgt. Sean Conners — to the office of Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett on Friday.

That office was still reviewing the city’s information as of Monday, according to Blodgett spokeswoman Carrie Kimball Monahan. Neither Romeo Theken nor Kesten would comment as to whether any of the evidence could lead to potential criminal charges.

Campanello, 48, was named as Gloucester’s chief in August 2012. He has drawn wide support and national media attention after last year’s launch of the department’s angel program, in which drug addicts turn in their drugs, needles and other paraphernalia without fear of arrest if they agree to let the police department help place them into treatment. The program, with support of the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative — a nonprofit Campanello co-founded — has since been copied by more than 100 police departments from Maine to Illinois, with more than 300 participating treatment centers around the country.

Last spring, Campanello was honored by the White House for his work battling heroin addiction. He was one of ten “Champions of Change” honored on April 29 out of more than 900 nominees. A White House statement said Campanello had shown “compassionate leadership” for initiating the opioid abuse-focused program.

But the mayor’s granting of requested leave as vacation time on Sept. 7, and then her placement of Campanello on paid administrative leave six days later, has cast a cloud over the chief and the department.

Assistant Chief John McCarthy has been running the department since the mayor placed Campanello on leave “until further notice.”

Lamont writes for the Gloucester, Massachusetts Times.