BOSTON — Three Massachusetts Appeals Court judges heard oral arguments on Wednesday after former Greenfield Police Chief Robert Haigh Jr. and the city challenged a 2022 Hampshire County Superior Court ruling that found he and the Police Department racially discriminated against former Officer Patrick Buchanan.

In May 2022, a jury in Hampshire County Superior Court found that Buchanan, the department’s only Black officer at the time, was denied promotions on multiple occasions and was unjustly disciplined due to “racial animus.” Buchanan was awarded more than $1 million, factoring in pay for lost wages, emotional distress, attorney fees, interest and other statutory costs.

Leonard Kesten, who represented Haigh and the city of Greenfield, argued Wednesday morning that evidence the defense presented during the trial about former Police Sgt. Dan McCarthy hanging a Confederate flag in his garage was irrelevant to the case, even though Judge Mark Mason asked the jury to disregard the detail. No decision was made by the Massachusetts Appeals Court judges on Wednesday, and a next court date has yet to be announced.

Kesten argued that since Haigh could not legally discipline McCarthy for a flag displayed on his property, the evidence was irrelevant when considering the allegations of racial discrimination and ultimately led to jury bias.

“This is a very important case. It’s important to all the parties. ... It’s not a run-of-the-mill case, it’s an important case. Everybody in this case deserved a fair trial and we did not get one,” Kesten said during his opening remarks.

Kesten also argued that Mason’s tone and demeanor to the defense throughout the trial also played a role in the jury’s decision, to negatively perceive the defense.

Associate Justice Christopher Hodgens responded to Kesten, saying that although he agreed McCarthy’s flag was irrelevant to the case, Mason advised jurors not to consider it in their deliberations.

“I’m very sympathetic to your argument, and you’ve made a very good argument in the brief and you’ve kind of won me over on that. It seems that the whole flag evidence was not relevant, and to the extent it may have been somewhat relevant, it was certainly prejudicial, unfairly prejudicial,” Hodgens said. “[Mason] changed course and instructed the jurors not to consider the evidence. So we have that, plus there was substantial evidence, other evidence unrelated to the flag, that jurors could readily conclude that this officer was treated very unfairly, very differently, based upon his race.”

Attorney Timothy Ryan, who represented Buchanan, argued before the judges on Wednesday that the way Haigh and the department disciplined Buchanan was disproportionate to the discipline, or alleged lack thereof, that white officers received for more severe offenses.

“Buchanan was again bypassed four times for promotion and they put into evidence six internal affairs reports issued by Sgt. McCarthy against Patrick Buchanan, in which Buchanan did such awful things as accepting a stick of gum from construction work on a road job, or appearing for his shift at the time the shift was called,” Ryan said. Yet, he continued, when another detective was “repeatedly drunk on the job,” McCarthy, “didn’t put a pen to paper.”

Buchanan was appointed as a provisional sergeant on Jan. 13, 2015, after he and several other Greenfield Police officers took a Civil Service promotional exam for the department’s two sergeant positions. Buchanan reportedly passed the exam with the highest score in the department.

However, days after Buchanan was promoted, he pulled over an 18-year-old driver, to whom he issued a warning rather than a ticket. Buchanan reportedly informed the driver that his traffic violations could have resulted in $185 in fines, and told the young man he should use some of that money “to buy something nice for his mother.”

Buchanan’s complaint alleges that McCarthy, who was the department’s liaison to Greenfield’s Human Rights Commission, heard about the traffic stop and left a letter for Lt. Joseph Burge, who is now retired, noting he had no issue with Buchanan’s decision to issue a warning, until he learned this had been at least the fourth or fifth time the officer had handled a traffic stop this way.

McCarthy was then named as the complainant in a formal Greenfield Police Department internal affairs complaint brought against Buchanan. By the end of the month, Haigh notified Buchanan in writing that as a result of the investigation, he would be subject to a three-day unpaid suspension, demoted from his position as provisional sergeant and removed from his role as a field training officer. He was also instructed to participate in a conflict of interest training program.

“What you’re looking at is that [the Police Department] penalized and disciplined Buchanan with the suspension and the demotion. But we have all of these other things,” Ryan said, citing several instances where other officers were not disciplined for inappropriate behavior. “He’s their No. 1 for the second round of promotions. That’s why a jury properly said there’s a discriminatory impact here, because if these guys are getting away with these heinous events, how can you throw the book at Patrick Buchanan?”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.