Bourque Claimed to Have Volunteered with Youth Organizations

Granby Police Captain David Bourque, who is facing a federal charge of possession of child pornography, claimed on his resume to have volunteered with several charitable organizations for children.

In a resume and job application he filed with the Granby town manager’s office, Bourque listed volunteer efforts for the Hole In the Wall Gang Camp, Special Olympics and Alex's Lemonade Stand, as well as Tip a Cop, Suffield on the Green and Friends of Hilltop Farm.

None of the organizations would confirm any record of Bourque as a volunteer and some said he might have participated only in fundraising that would not have involved contact with children.

The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford provides summer camp and weekend stays for children suffering serious illnesses. The camp has more than 275 volunteers each year, according to its website.

Willow Ann Sirch, director of communications for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, said the organization has no records indicating Bourque was ever a volunteer there.

"We have gone through all our records," Sirch said.  "He has never volunteered at the camp with our children."

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports cancer research, allows volunteers from just about anywhere to hold their own event to contribute to the foundation.

"I can state that while we have volunteers in the Granby, Connecticut, area who have held Alex’s Lemonade Stand events, I cannot confirm that David Bourque has been a part of them," said Gillian Kocher, a spokeswoman for the organization.

Kocher said the organization, headquartered in Wynnewood, PA, relies on the individual event organizers to track volunteers.

"The safety of all of our volunteers and lemonade stand hosts is of utmost concern to the foundation," Kocher said.

Suffield and Granby police officials said they had no knowledge of Bourque's involvement with any volunteer activities, despite the list on his resume.

In Granby, Police Chief David Watkins said Bourque was a member of both the Granby Juvenile Review Board and the Granby Youth Prevention Council. He said both positions were administrative and to his knowledge Bourque was not involved in any situations that put him in contact with children.

Suffield Police Capt. Craig Huntley said he was never aware of Bourque volunteering with children.

"I knew him for 22 years," Huntley said. "I never knew anything about that."

Bourque worked for the Suffield Police Department for 30 years until he voluntarily retired in 2009 and took a job as captain with the Granby Police Department, where he worked for 18 months before being placed on administrative leave April 11.

Bourque lists separately Special Olympics and Tip a Cop on his resume. But Laura Gremelsbacker, the vice president of communications for Connecticut Special Olympics, said the organization has no records of his involvement.

“He is not in our volunteer database, which means he definitely wasn’t a volunteer with any of our Special Olympics games,” Gremelsbacker said.

She did say Bourque could have been involved with the law enforcement Torch Run or the Tip a Cop fundraiser, both of which have drawn participants from the Suffield Police Department.  Neither of these activities would have put Bourque in contact with children, she said.

Tom Carson, an official with the U.S. District Attorney Public Information Office, said investigators involved with Bourque's case had no comment on his supposed volunteer activities.

Bourque's resume did not specify in what capacity he volunteered with any of the organizations.  The 2009 job application contains the same clause, which reads  "Voluntary services to Food Bank, Hole in the Wall Gang, Suffield on the Green, Hilltop Farm, Tip a Cop, Special Olympics, Alex Lemonade, and numerous fundraisers for fire, ambulance and special events."

Bourque's attorney, Richard Brown, said he had no knowledge of his client volunteering with any of the organizations listed on his application.

"I think by now with all the publicity that someone would have come forward," Brown said. "There is no evidence whatsoever that he has ever acted inappropriately in any of these organizations."

Bourque also admitted on a pre-employment evaluation on file with the town of Granby to having possessed child pornography.  But Bourque said he had the materials "for law enforcement purposes as seized for evidence, investigations and prosecutions." Bourque also told an interviewer conducting his pre-employment screening that he had an obsessive compulsive disorder.

A pre-employment evaluation on file with the Suffield Police department from 1981 indicates that Bourque admitted to cocaine and marijuana use.  Bourque admits only to marijuana use in his background investigation on file with the town of Granby. He estimated using marijuana 200 times before 1980.

Court documents included in Bourque's personnel file at Granby Town Hall indicate Bourque filed for divorce from his first wife, Susan Bourque, in October 2009. Bourque told an interviewer in December 2009 that he was living with his fiancée, Dana Wertman, and her 17-year old son in her West Suffield home. Bourque has two daughters from his first marriage and one daughter from his current marriage.

Bourque will appear at Enfield Superior Court on June 9 on a state misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana, a charge that stemmed from the search of his wife's West Suffield home by police on April 11.

A date has not been set for the federal trial Bourque faces on charge of possession of child pornography.  Brown said Bourque has pleaded not guilty to the federal charge.