BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- A Bridgeport fire department lieutenant charged with breach of peace following an alleged anti-Obama rant last month has retired.
Paul Neugebauer is due in state Superior Court in Milford on Tuesday for a hearing on the charge. Neither Neugebauer nor Chief Brian Rooney would say Monday whether the Sept. 13 incident at the Pilot Truck Stop in Milford was the reason for the retirement.
Neugebauer had been on administrative leave pending a hearing, the chief said. "He had an option to retire, and that's what he did," Rooney said.
Neugebauer, reached at his West Haven home, said that he has 26 years of service with the department. "I didn't retire because I was losing my job, because I don't know that would have happened," the 60-year-old said.
Neugebauer has gotten into trouble before for expressing his political beliefs too stridently. He was charged with intimidation based on bigotry or bias, a hate crime, after a 2002 dispute with a convenience store owner and his son, who were both of Middle Eastern descent. The charge was later dropped, Neugebauer said.
"Now I'm going to lose my job," he said after the incident last month. "It's my own fault. I can't keep my mouth shut, and my employer is tired of it."
Lieutenants are paid $62,629 annually under the city's current contract with Local 834 of the International Association of Firefighters. Department members are eligible to receive up to 50 percent of their salary after 25 years of service.
Neugebauer was placed on administrative leave the day of the incident, Rooney said. He is accused of grabbing the arm of Robert Kravitz, of Woodbridge, while the men were fueling their vehicles. Kravitz was wearing an Obama 2012 shirt and had a similar decal on his car. Neugebauer allegedly stuck his head in Kravitz's car and berated him using profane language.
The retired Bridgeport fire official denies grabbing or shoving Kravitz.
Neugebauer has helped run fundraisers for America's 911 Foundation, a group that helps support veterans, first responders and their families, and volunteered at the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Neugebauer was also among several firefighters cited by the Bridgeport fire board for heroism in the rescue of two small girls from a burning apartment building in 1997.
Copyright 2012 - Connecticut Post, Bridgeport
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
