[R]UTLAND – A Rutland City firefighter suspended from his job since his arrest this summer for allegedly impersonating a police officer is facing new criminal charges of drunken driving and leaving the scene of a crash early Thanksgiving morning.
In a statement, Rutland City Police said that officers on foot patrol on Center Street saw Brent Garrow driving a 1994 Cadillac Fleetwood erratically early Thursday morning. Officers got in their cruisers to try to track Garrow down and when they found him and talked to him he appeared to be “impaired by an intoxicating substance,” according to the statement.
The 1994 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine belongs to Clifford’s Funeral Home, where Garrow works part time. A person answering the phone at Clifford’s Funeral Home on Friday morning declined comment, but confirmed that it was the funeral home’s limousine and Garrow does work there part time.
While taking Garrow back to the police department early Thursday morning for processing, police said the officers saw that the rear of another vehicle nearby had sustained heavy damage.
Through investigation, according to the release, officers determined that Garrow had allegedly earlier struck that damaged vehicle when driving before he was stopped by police and did not report it. The funeral home’s limousine also sustained damage.
After Garrow, 31, of Rutland Town, was processed at the police station, he was released to a sober person, the release stated. He is set to be arraigned on the charge Dec. 11 in Rutland County Superior Criminal Court.
It’s the latest brush with the law for Garrow.
On the afternoon of Aug. 12, a Vermont State Police trooper said he stopped Garrow for speeding on Route 7 in Clarendon. Trooper Jonathan Hall wrote in a court affidavit that Garrow showed him a badge and told him he worked for the Pittsford Police Department.
The trooper said he let Garrow go with a verbal warning. However, the trooper wrote that he later learned that Garrow had been decertified as a police officer more than a year earlier.
Garrow pleaded innocent to the impersonation charge and was released on conditions. That case remains pending. Garrow has been on paid administrative leave from his job at the city fire department since his arrest this summer on the impersonation charge.
Neither Rutland City Mayor David Allaire or interim Fire Chief William Lovett could immediately be reached Friday for comment.
Sabina Smiechowski, Garrow’s attorney in the case involving the impersonating a police officer charge, could also not be immediately reached Friday.
Garrow also made news prior to his arrest when he returned to work at the city Fire Department in April after a nearly two-year medical leave that included a kidney transplant.
Garrow’s status with the Rutland City Fire Department became an issue during the Rutland mayoral campaign this year. Shortly before Town Meeting Day in March a post on his Facebook page alleged that the city wouldn’t let him return to work even though he was cleared by a physician.
Then-Mayor Christopher Louras denied that was the case in his own online posting, in a letter addressed to Garrow.
Bad blood between Louras and firefighters was cited by many as a factor in Louras’ loss in the mayoral race, in addition to his support of a plan to resettle refugees from Syria and Iraq in the city.
Louras’ handling of a proposal to restructure the Fire Department drew opposition from firefighters and members of the Board of Aldermen. The firefighters union backed Allaire — then an alderman — in his successful bid for mayor.
Louras, reached Friday, had this to say about Garrow’s latest arrest, “Regarding the credibility of Mr. Garrow, those social media users who are easily duped by mistruths and false narratives should reassess where they get their information.”
Anyone with information about the incident involving Garrow early Thursday morning, including any information about who may have been in the vehicle with him, is asked call Sgt. Adam Lucia of the Rutland City Police Department at 773-1816.