Kenney v. Mass. State Police

Sunday, January 14, 2018 — I’m at the local Planet Fitness, and this woman comes in, asking where she could buy coffee nearby; says she’s been on the road. Said she was coming from Albany. I asked her, “Albany?” Seemed like a weird place to come from at the crack of dawn.

She said she had been down to see a retailer in Albany—a specialist in security devices—to purchase this high-quality RFID-shield fabric. A track bag, laptop bag, coat, and ninety-six square-feet of the stuff. She showed me the inside walls of her coat; sure enough, crinkly metallic fabric lined the interior. I asked why.

The fabric deflects RFID (radio-frequency identification) signals, which traverse electromagnetic fields so as to identify and track particular devices. Detection can occur from anywhere in the world, making it a go-to for hackers or law enforcement on the prowl, need they oversee a particular person or item with or without consent.

RFID tags can be attached to clothing and objects, embedded in computers, or implanted into persons. The fear of being tracked or analyzed remotely by a device that can read you and yours is a terrifying, violating, and tangible fear in our modern era—this fourth industrial revolution with its ‘internet of things’; an artificial intelligence that’s always listening to and learning about us—and such fear has raised concerns recently regarding individual privacy rights. Nevertheless, revenue in the largely-unregulated RFID market has increased by 15% every year for nearly a decade.

This woman—Lisa Kenney—was among the minority who knew first-hand the tangibility of this fear, by the unfounded, unending invasion of her privacy.

… Or, did she?

The following is merely an outline of accumulated research, structured around allegations provided by a woman named Lisa Kenney, who once told me her life’s story while I was at work. I never got past structuring this article because doing so in a coherent and compelling manner while also indulging in both facts and suppositions [as well as a series of legal episodes] proved too daunting to hold my attention, in that my energies could be better spent on projects that actually mattered to me and had value and could possibly pay-off for me down the road—as would, say, writing another book or producing a kick-ass podcast. Despite this, I truly do find the core of Kenney’s abstraction interesting: that therein, somewhere between the verified data and the paranoid ravings of a Planet Fitness customer, lies an uncomfortable truth about the corruption of Boston’s most powerful, the nonchalant abuse of such power at the expense of the common man, and a lack of accountability, justice, and retribution for these abuses.

Kenney v. Mass. State Police

Gov. Deval Patrick & Col. Timothy Alben

FROM THE TOP — GOV. DEVAL PATRICK

• In the early months of Patrick's administration, a series of decisions the governor later conceded as "missteps" brought substantial unfavorable press. These included spending almost $11,000 on drapery for the governor's state house suite, changing the state's customary car lease from a Ford Crown Victoria to a Cadillac (thus earning Patrick the snide nickname "Deville"), and hiring Amy Gorin, an assistant who had previously helped chair his election campaign, as a staff assistant to Diane Patrick, the Commonwealth's First Lady, at an annual salary of almost $75,000. Emerging from a weekend of working on the state's budget and calling for cuts in services to taxpayers, Patrick responded in a February 20, 2007 press conference that "I realize I cannot in good conscience ask the agencies to make those choices without being willing to make them myself."[81] Patrick subsequently reimbursed the Commonwealth for the cost of the drapery and furniture purchased for the state house, and the additional monthly difference in his car lease.[81] Gorin later resigned.[82]

• Later in the same month Patrick again came under fire, this time for contacting Citigroup Executive Committee chair and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin on behalf of the financially beleaguered mortgage company Ameriquest, a subsidiary of ACC Capital Holdings, that had been accused of predatory lending practices and of which Patrick is a former board member. Both Citigroup and ACC Capital Holdings have substantial holdings in Massachusetts.[83] Patrick attempted to deflect criticism, claiming he was calling not as governor but as a private citizen. Later Patrick backed down, stating "I appreciate that I should not have made the call. I regret the mistake."[83]

  • Deval Patrick, Foreclosure Mogul: How the 2020 Democratic presidential contender helped a Republican billionaire rip off the middle class. — by Zach Carter

    When Deval Patrick’s daughter was growing up in the 1980s, her kindergarten teacher gave her an assignment: Go home and describe the four seasons to your mom and dad. So she did: “First you drive up and the doorman takes your car.” For the daughter of a Boston power lawyer, the Four Seasons Hotel seemed as sensible a homework topic as the basics on winter, spring, summer and fall. // Patrick loves this joke. He has been telling it to audiences since at least 2007. It’s in his memoir, it pops up in radio interviews, and this fall he deployed it to charm a crowd at a Washington think tank. The key to the story isn’t his easy smile but who he is. Coming from Mitt Romney, the same narrative would be a crass celebration of inherited wealth. But from a black man who can remember his mother cashing welfare checks on the South Side of Chicago, it’s inspirational stuff ― a symbol, as Patrick says, of what makes America an exceptional country.

    Which makes Patrick, a Democrat, an extremely effective messenger for a fundamentally conservative idea. “What I feel we often describe as income inequality is a shorthand for economic mobility,” he told that think tank crowd. “The ability to move from where you are to where you want to be ― that is the source of continuing anxiety, notwithstanding what the statistics say about the strength of the economy.” // This isn’t true, of course. Economic mobility and income inequality aren’t interchangeable concepts, and people don’t really get them mixed up. In 2012, Romney’s soon-to-be running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), made the difference between the two ideas a key distinction between the Republican ticket and the vision of President Barack Obama. // “We have to make a decision in this country,” Ryan told a right-wing radio host. Republicans wanted to “celebrate the right to rise” by “protecting equal opportunities,” while Democrats, Ryan said, “saw the government’s role” as “equalizing the outcome of our lives.” 

    But as the Democratic Party prepares for the 2020 primaries, Patrick’s message is receiving a powerful signal boost from none other than Obama himself. The two men have more in common than a Chicago connection. Both attended prep school on scholarships, and both earned Harvard Law degrees before beginning careers as civil rights attorneys. During his 2008 presidential run, Obama even cribbed some rhetoric on the stump from speeches Patrick gave during his 2006 gubernatorial race. Today much of the 44th president’s inner circle is promoting Patrick at elite gatherings. And while Patrick hasn’t made anything official, his friends launched a political action committee in August, allowing his team to start courting donors ahead of 2020. // Patrick has plenty of political assets ― an understated sense of humor and the experience of two terms as governor of Massachusetts among them. But the support from Obama is the chief reason Patrick is being mentioned as a top 2020 contender in the Democratic Party. And it might be best if Democrats didn’t go hunting for other reasons. Told from a different angle, Patrick’s biography isn’t an uplifting rags-to-riches story but an ugly tale of corruption among the American power elite. Patrick didn’t just make a lot of money; he made a lot of money helping a Republican billionaire rip off the black middle class.

    In 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Republican Party megadonor Roland Arnall to serve as ambassador to the Netherlands. Arnall, his wife and the companies they controlled were the biggest contributors to Bush over the previous three years, spending over $1 million on his second inauguration alone. Ambassadorships are frequently dispensed to big donors, but Arnall had no diplomatic experience. Even his business was a domestic affair. The appointment looked bad enough that a few senators, including a newcomer from Illinois named Barack Obama, cried foul.

    But Arnall got some support from an unlikely source. Patrick and Arnall got to know each other in 1996, when Patrick helmed the civil rights division at the Department of Justice. Arnall was running Long Beach Mortgage Co., which the DOJ was investigating for racial discrimination in the subprime lending market. The DOJ and Long Beach eventually reached a $4 million settlement. The idea was to send a message to subprime lenders about some of their shadier practices without crimping the flow of credit into the still-developing sector. “We recognize that lenders understand the industry in ways we don’t,” Patrick said at the time. “That is why there is so much flexibility in the decree.” 

    When Arnall came up for the ambassadorship, Patrick wrote to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to heap praise on Arnall. The billionaire was “a good man,” Patrick wrote, and Arnall’s Ameriquest was “a good company.” Arnall had “really stepped forward” after the settlement in the 1990s. “He used the experience to make a better company” and would make a “fine ambassador.” // It wasn’t true. After signing Patrick’s slap-on-the-wrist settlement, Arnall developed his mortgage operation into Ameriquest, which became the world’s largest subprime lender during the housing bubble. It was notorious ― “the worst bottom-feeder of them all,” in the words of New York Times business columnist Joe Nocera, who later wrote a book with Bethany McLean documenting the company’s horrors and its relationship with Patrick. 

    Ameriquest’s business model used high-pressure sales techniques to push homeowners with existing mortgages into new loans with sky-high interest rates. If the family couldn’t pay, investors who bought the loans would acquire the house through foreclosure. When home prices were soaring during the housing bubble, it was a tremendously profitable strategy, turning Arnall into a billionaire. // But Ameriquest was a financial time bomb targeting middle-class families, particularly families of color. There is no nationwide database on Ameriquest’s lending that sorts by race, but we can get a look at the company’s general operations by looking at individual cities. In Milwaukee “nearly all” Ameriquest loans issued from 2003 to 2005 were refinancings, according to data from the University of Wisconsin, and half of them were made to households making less than $50,000 a year, with more than a third going to inner-city neighborhoods covered by the federal government’s Community Development Block Grant Program. In Detroit the company was responsible for over 2,500 foreclosures, 70 percent of them on homes that were blighted or abandoned by 2015, according to The Detroit News. A 2010 study by researchers at Ohio State University found that Ameriquest disproportionately targeted black neighborhoods in Minneapolis.

    And Patrick was making $360,000 a year working for Ameriquest. He joined the company’s board in 2004, lending his credibility as a former civil rights attorney to both the company’s operations and the public image of its founder. Two months after Patrick vouched for Arnall to the Senate, Ameriquest agreed to pay $325 million to settle predatory lending allegations in 49 states and the District of Columbia. // When the mortgage business began to implode, Patrick left Ameriquest to run for governor of Massachusetts. Though his corporate background generated plenty of controversy in the primary ― he pointedly refused to release his tax returns during the campaign ― he entered office in 2007 as Ameriquest was collapsing. Patrick called Citigroup executive Robert Rubin to plead for funding to rescue the dying firm, using the weight of the governorship to quite literally call in a favor for a Republican billionaire.

    In a statement provided to HuffPost, Patrick spokesman Alex Goldstein described the former governor’s Ameriquest tenure as a victory for progressive change. // “Governor Patrick believes that real change cannot always be achieved from the outside, and sometimes requires us to bring our judgement and conscience inside to have an impact,” Alex Goldstein wrote. “In 2004, he agreed to serve on the board of ACC Capital Holdings as the Board’s internal liaison to Ameriquest management, helping to reach settlements with states seeking compensation for those harmed by Ameriquest’s predatory lending practices. Governor Patrick served in this role as he has throughout his career ― without leaving his conscience at the door.” // If so, Patrick’s tenure at Ameriquest raises serious questions about his role at other scandal-plagued corporations. He did some work on the mortgage settlement, and the details that have come to light ― particularly in a book by former Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Hudson ― implicate Patrick in the company’s attempt to wine and dine its way out of liability.

    Arnall introduced Patrick to a group of state attorneys general at a dinner he had arranged hoping to bring down the temperature of negotiations that would eventually end in the $325 million settlement. The pricey evening became an immediate government ethics debacle for the prosecutors ― a transparent effort by Arnall and Patrick to buy off their adversaries with a night on the town. Public servants are generally barred from accepting gifts from corporations they are investigating for fraud. But Ameriquest insisted on taking care of the check, resulting in months of negotiations over how prosecutors would pay their tabs. Several ended up sending the company personal checks.

    Patrick’s personal line on government ethics issues has always been aggressive. His decision to work at a company he had investigated for racially discriminatory lending was, even by Washington standards, an audacious turn through the revolving door. But the Ameriquest episode wasn’t the first time he ran that particular routine. // Under Patrick’s leadership in 1997, the DOJ signed a $176 million settlement with Texaco for racial discrimination against its employees. A year after a court approved the deal, he left the DOJ for a job as Texaco’s top in-house attorney. // Four years later, he left Texaco for Coca-Cola, which was trying to clean up its image after signing a $192 million racial discrimination settlement ― the largest in history. The pattern was clear: Patrick was the guy you hired if your company needed to look serious about fixing high-profile racism. 

    He arrived at Coca-Cola as outrage was building over its practices in Colombia, where its bottling plants hired paramilitary forces to intimidate and murder employees in an effort to thwart union activity. By 2003, international labor unions were calling for a boycott of the company. Patrick’s legacy with Coke is complex. He defended Coca-Cola against a lawsuit filed by labor unions over the violence, and when courts dismissed the case, he praised the result as “the right legal outcome.” But in 2004 he pressed for an independent investigation of the death squad allegations as a check against Coca-Cola’s own investigation. When the company’s executives recoiled at the idea, he resigned. // But he wasn’t done taking Coke’s money. He accepted $2.1 million in consulting work with Coke the year after he stepped down.

    Prominent civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, have defended Patrick’s work for Coca-Cola as substantive. But some companies can’t be fixed from the inside. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic politician boasting about her ability to boost wages at a tobacco giant, for instance. Patrick knew that Arnall ran a problem company in the 1990s and praised him as a sincere reformer even as his company was falling apart for again mass-producing foreclosures that disproportionately affected minority families. The good guys in 2005 weren’t trying to score ambassadorships for Ameriquest’s founder. They were trying to put him out of business. // “The subprime market had evolved to the point where we needed to do anything we could to shut it down,” says Prentiss Cox, currently a University of Minnesota Law School professor who worked on the states’ settlement with Ameriquest and wanted to bring the case to court.

    In corporate America, Patrick was not so much a reformer as he was a public relations figure. He gave corporations a story to tell about the good things they were supposedly doing ― even if when they were simultaneously busying themselves with very bad things. By comparison, his tenure as governor of Massachusetts is pretty tame. His transgressions against progressive orthodoxy ― securing $1 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, increasing sales taxes (a regressive change that hits the poor harder than other tax increases) by $1 billion, overruling state regulators to clear the way for Uber ― never came close to threatening his re-election. He finished both terms with sky-high approval ratings. // After leaving government, he accepted a job at Bain Capital, where he focuses on making investments in midmarket companies with high social and environmental impact. // The day Bain announced the hire, Mitt Romney called Patrick to congratulate him. 

• Patrick crafted and signed a bill that allows for the construction and operation of three resort-style casinos in the state. He argued that these casinos would generate over $2 billion for the state economy. He also touted that the casinos would create 30,000 construction jobs and 20,000 permanent jobs.[40][41]

  • Patrick proposed that the revenue generated would be spent to beef up local law enforcement, create a state gambling regulatory agency, repair roads and bridges, gambling addiction treatment and the remainder would go towards property tax relief.[42][43]

  • Patrick's casino plan had faced strong opposition from Salvatore DiMasi, the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. DiMasi questioned Patrick's projections of new jobs, revenues to be generated and he was opposed to what he referred to as a casino culture, saying: "Do we want to usher in a casino culture– with rampant bankruptcies, crime and social ills– or do we want to create a better Massachusetts for all sectors of the society?"[44][45][46]

  • Casino gaming lobbying in Massachusetts has also received scrutiny for associations with the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal and efforts by the Mashpee Wampanoag people to secure rights to a casino outside of the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. In 2009, Patrick was among the top campaign contribution recipients from casino lobbying interests, and from financiers backing the Wampanoag casino interests.

  • On March 20, 2008, the Massachusetts House of Representatives rejected Patrick's casino bill by a vote of 108 to 46.[49] Despite the overwhelming vote, questions were raised by critics of DiMasi as to the tactics he used to win. These included allegations that he promised a subsequent vote on a bill that would allow slot machines at the state's four racetracks and the pre-vote promotions of six lawmakers who had been thought to support the bill, but either abstained or voted against the bill. DiMasi denied that any promise had been made on the race track bill and denied that the promotions were connected to the casino bill vote.[50][51][52]

  • Patrick's conduct was also criticized and his commitment to the bill questioned when it was revealed that he was not in the state on the day the bill was voted on in the legislature. As the bill was being voted down, Patrick was in New York City on personal business, finalizing a $1.35-million deal with Broadway Books, an imprint of Random House, to publish his autobiography.[53][54][55]

  • By mid-2010, the house and senate passed a bill with plans for three resort-style casinos and two slot parlors. However, Patrick vetoed it as he previously stated that he would only accept one slot parlor.[56] When the 2011 casino legislation was still in debate, an investigative report in The Boston Globe revealed the governor violated his self-imposed policy of not accepting money from or meeting with lobbyists for the gambling industry by accepting more than $6,000 in campaign contributions and meeting with and attending fundraisers hosted by gaming lobbyists.[57]

  • Patrick signed the legislation into law in December 2011. Its implementation, however, has seen hurdles and delays. The governor's point man on crafting gaming legislation and negotiating a state compact with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, Assistant Secretary for Policy & Economic Development Carl Stanley McGee, was forced to resign from his appointment to direct the newly formed Massachusetts Gaming Commission following reports of 2007 charges that he molested a child in Florida.[58] Stan McGee was forced to return to his economic development post where he still oversees casino policies for the governor.[59] The scandal resulted in the Massachusetts legislature passing a bill and overriding a veto by Patrick requiring background checks on casino regulators.[60]

• On September 17, 2014, Patrick fired the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board chair Saundra Edwards and placed director Jeanne Holmes on paid administrative leave because they pressured the board to force Patrick's brother-in-law to register as a sex offender, based on his conviction for raping his wife, Patrick’s sister.[84]

  • Brother-in-law of former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick held on assault charges — 12/13/2017 — The brother-in-law of former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is being held without the right to bail after he was arraigned Monday in Quincy District Court on charges of domestic assault and battery and assault with the intent to rape, the Boston Globe reported. // Bernard Sigh, 65, was arrested over the weekend after the alleged victim told authorities that she found Sigh in her closet wearing only underwear. WCVB-TV reported that the woman said he grabbed her several times when she tried to flee the apartment and she later relented to sex with him after he threatened her. // Sigh told police the sex was consensual. // The woman said she was able to escape the apartment the next morning and contact police. // This is not Sigh's first rape allegation. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to a charge of spousal rape while living in California and served time in jail and on probation. // His conviction came to light when Patrick made his first run for governor in 2006.  The Boston Herald reported Sigh's conviction and that he had not registered as a sex offender in Massachusetts.  A hearing board had earlier ruled Sigh did not have to register for the California case.

• In June 2015, the Boston Herald reported that Patrick's administration secretly diverted nearly $27 million in government funds to off-budget accounts that paid for trade junkets tab, advertising contracts, and a deal with a federally subsidized tourism venture backed by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.[85] According to the Herald, state legislators never approved the funding, which began in 2009 when Patrick's office directed quasi-public state agencies, including the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and Massport to begin funding off-budget trusts.[86] A week later, the Boston Globe quoted Representative David Linsky, chair of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Post Audit and Oversight Committee, as saying that, upon review, the expenditures were either approved by the state legislature or permissible under the state's budget rules and that they violated no applicable law.[87]

  • How Massachusetts' Former Governor Hid Millions in Public Funding — by Joe Battenfeld

    Former Gov. Deval Patrick's administration secretly diverted nearly $27 million in public money to off-budget accounts that paid for a $1.35 million trade junket tab, bloated advertising contracts, and a deal with a federally subsidized tourism venture backed by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, a Herald investigation has found. // The maneuver to fatten the hidden "trust" accounts with millions from state quasi-public agencies allowed Patrick to skirt the state Legislature and evade state budget cutbacks during the recession, the Herald found. // State lawmakers never approved the funding plan, and it's not clear who even knew about it, but it is clear who orchestrated the end-around the budget and got state agencies to contribute. // "The (Patrick) administration asked us to," said Katie Hauser, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which kicked in the largest amount to the trusts, $23.5 million. // One of the trusts was run by a close Patrick loyalist, Betsy Wall, a former top campaign aide later appointed as the $134,000 head of travel and tourism. // The trust dinging taxpayers for Patrick's around-the-world travel was funded by Massport and the Mass Tech Collaborative, an obscure agency that gets state and federal dollars, including an injection of Obama stimulus money. // Those two agencies, along with the MCCA, funneled nearly $27 million to the trust plan. // Records show that from 2011 to 2014, Patrick and his traveling entourage rang up a $535,558 hotel tab, $332,193 in airfare, $305,976 for limos and transportation and $175,000 in other costs. All told, it came to $1.35 million.

    The total cost of Patrick's overseas trips, including a $225,000 visit to China in 2007 -- before the trust accounts were created -- cost $1,573,949, according to records from the state's Housing and Economic Development office, which oversaw the accounts. The 10 overseas junkets, including a $364,000 trip to South America, cost far more than the Patrick administration previously disclosed. // Patrick started a nonprofit designed to pay for the trade missions in 2010, but after spending only $130,000 in private donations, the effort apparently was scuttled. Records at the attorney general's office show no spending or donations to the nonprofit after 2011. // In an email response, Wall said she had no conversations with Patrick on using the trusts to fund trade missions. // The donations from the convention center authority under its then-Executive Director James E. Rooney could raise eyebrows. Patrick approved the MCCA's expansion plans in 2014 after the authority had given the $23.5 million to the tourism trust. Gov. Charlie Baker has since halted the expansion.

    That trust run by Wall funneled more than $17 million to the state tourism office's advertising firm, Connelly Partners, in addition to the millions Connelly got through budget appropriations, records show. Wall's trust also provided $223,000 in extra funding to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and $500,000 to Brand USA, a Washington-based public-private partnership launched by Congress and strongly backed by Reid, records show. // Brand USA has been criticized for being a haven for Democratic cronies and a benefit for Las Vegas casinos in Reid's home state. // In an email response, Wall said the tourism trust was designed to "ease the pressure on the state budget" but declined to say whether legislative leaders were aware of the spending. // Other trusts, funded mostly by the quasi-public agency Mass-Development, got more than $10 million to help fund operations and other ventures for the Housing and Economic Development and Business Development offices. // All told, contributions from the quasi-public agencies to the trusts totaled $37.35 million.

  • When he was running for the governorship, he selected Worcester Mayor Tim Murray as his Lt. Governor: Deval Patrick for governor (Boston Globe) - 10/28/2006

    With his candidate for lieutenant governor, Worcester mayor Timothy Murray, Patrick should build a team that understands the needs of the struggling cities and towns while reaching for innovative solutions to some of the state’s most intractable problems.

    Despite claims by his opponents that Patrick has made a long, budget-busting list of promises to special interests, his immediate priorities are rather modest. He wants to add 1000 police officers to local communities (Cost: $85 million, or less than one-half of one percent of the total state budget.) He wants to expand the circuit-breaker limit on property taxes for the elderly so that more residents are eligible (cost: $60 million). He wants to implement the state’s landmark universal health care law — slowly and carefully, without drama. Other more sweeping investments will have to wait until the economy rebounds.

  • Even Former Governor Deval Patrick likes to hang out in downtown Worcester - Feb. 10, 2017 — Despite all of the exciting talk about development in the city, Patrick and Murray insisted that the meeting was not about business. // "It's just two friends catching up, and getting some coffee," Murray said.

  • In 1997, Murray was elected to serve on the Worcester City Council.

  • He was elected mayor of the city in 2001, a position he held up until 2007 when he was inaugurated as Lieutenant Governor of Mass’s. In Worcester, which has a hybrid council/city manager form of government, the mayor is directly elected by the people and is considered the political leader of the city. The mayor is, by charter, chair of the City Council and chair of the School Committee, overseeing the city's 23,000-student public school system. The mayor appoints the membership of City Council committees and directs the council's meetings. The mayor is not the chief executive of the city; that power rests with the city manager, who is appointed by the City Council.[2]

    • As mayor, Murray promoted brownfields redevelopment, expanded commuter rail service and economic development. Through public advocacy, he helped to launch the largest downtown redevelopment project in the city's recent history, known as the City Square project, which involved redevelopment of a failed shopping mall on some 20 prime acres in the core of downtown Worcester. When first permitted, the City Square project was the single largest development project in Massachusetts history outside of Boston, but the $1.1 billion proposed downtown center in Quincy may surpass City Square if it is built as planned.

  • In 2006 Murray ran for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor, defeating his two opponents, Deborah Goldberg and Andrea Silbert on September 19, 2006, with 43% of the vote. He ran with the Democratic nominee for Governor, Deval Patrick, as a ticket in the 2006 elections, beating out the Republican ticket of Kerry Healey and Reed Hillman.

    • Once in office, Murray was appointed to numerous posts by Governor Deval Patrick. He was the Chairman of the Governor's Advisory Council on Veterans Services which works to provide benefits and services to members of the military and their families[3] and secure federal grants for housing and services for veterans;[4] he was also Chairman of the Seaport Advisory Council which works to enhance the economic development of the ports of Massachusetts[5] and has invested millions of dollars in improvements for the ports;[6] he was also Chairman of the Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness working to end homelessness in Massachusetts[7] and implement "housing first" reforms to keep families and individuals from needing to go into shelter in the first place.[8]

    • During this time, Murray also served as the Chairman of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Advisory Council, working to stress the importance of these areas of education to compete in the global marketplace.[9] As Chairman of the STEM Council, Murray worked to provide students with real world experience in STEM using public-private partnerships.[10]

    • As the point person for Governor Patrick on passenger rail and freight service, Murray spearheaded the negotiations with CSX for an agreement to move their current rail yard from Boston to Worcester, thereby freeing up some 80 prime riverfront acres in Boston for redevelopment; increase passenger train service on the Worcester/Framingham line; open a Transflo facility in Westborough[11] for intermodal shipping; and refurbish bridges on the rail lines in western Massachusetts to allow for double stacked trains to move all the way across the state without stopping.[12]

    • As the Chairman of the Military Asset and Security Strategy Task Force, Murray worked to protect and promote Massachusetts military installations and the businesses associated with them. Last year Massachusetts received over $13.9 billion in federal contracts for industries related to national defense.[13]

    • On April 2, 2010, Governor Patrick and Murray confirmed they would run for re-election. On June 5, 2010, they were endorsed by Democrats at the Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention. Both faced no other Democratic challengers. Other gubernatorial candidates in the 2010 election included Republican Charlie Baker, Independent Tim Cahill, and Green/Rainbow Jill Stein. The election took place on November 2, 2010, and Patrick and Murray were re-elected with 48.4% of the vote.[14]

    • The Lieutenant Governor checked himself into St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester on July 5, 2010 after feeling chest pains. He had marched in five parades over the weekend for Independence Day celebrations in 90 degree heat. The following day, he remained hospitalized for further testing and was said to be in good spirits.[15] On July 7 he was released from the hospital.

  • On November 2, 2011, Murray crashed a government-owned vehicle on a stretch of Interstate 190.[17] Initially, police investigating did not issue any citations. // Murray initially claimed he simply lost control on the ice, wasn't speeding, was wearing a seatbelt and braked. But those claims were all later disproven when the Crown Victoria black box data recorder information was released.[18] The data revealed the car was traveling 108 miles per hour, accelerated and that Murray was not wearing a seat belt at the time the vehicle collided with a rock ledge and flipped over. Murray was unhurt in the accident.[17]

  • With Deval Patrick not seeking re-election in 2014, Murray was considered by some to be the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for Governor.[19][20] However, he announced in January 2013 that he would not run for Governor.[21]

    • On May 22, 2013, The Boston Globe reported that Murray would resign the position of lieutenant governor to become head of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, a job that pays more than his government salary.[22]

    • On August 29, 2013, the Massachusetts Attorney General announced that former Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray and his campaign committee have agreed to pay a total of $80,000 to resolve allegations that he accepted contributions unlawfully solicited by state employees on his behalf.[23]

• Deval Patrick leaves a complex legacy - 01/04/2015 - By Michael Levenson

  Deval Patrick looked out on Boston Common, presiding not only as the incoming governor but as the leader of a movement that had upended politics. Thousands from across the state cheered and held up cellphone cameras — people of every kind and color, young and old, jubilant multitudes never before seen at the State House.

  “It’s time for a change,” Patrick declared, “and we are that change.”

  Over the next eight years, Patrick delivered on some of those hopes: securing reforms in transportation, education, and ethics, and launching initiatives that stimulated the clean energy and biotechnology industries. He legalized casinos, surprising and disappointing supporters, and was besieged by management problems in health care, child welfare, and unemployment benefits that bruised the faith in government he was determined to restore.

  As he prepares to leave office, Patrick leaves behind a deep imprint on the judiciary, where he has appointed more than 40% of the state’s judges, including five of the seven justices of the Supreme Judicial Court. His influence can also be felt in the halls of power, where a loyal network of former aides now hold high positions in the corporate, lobbying, and nonprofit worlds. But he has also alienated many of his allies in the Legislature, who say he frustrated them with a style that was sometimes high-handed and tone deaf.

  “He was absolutely phenomenal in terms of the broad themes,” said Rep. David Linsky, a Natick Democrat who worked with Patrick on criminal justice issues. “When I think about where the Commonwealth was eight years ago and where it is now, we’re in great shape in a lot of ways. The failings were in the nitty-gritty of running the state. The problem has been in the basic administration of government.”

  The new governor and his politically inexperienced team spent their first three months lurching from crisis to crisis — over the costly new drapes in his office, the upgrading of his official car to a Cadillac, his phone call to vouch for a controversial subprime mortgage lender.

  After overhauling his staff, bringing in the kind of seasoned hands he had initially shunned, Patrick regained his footing, scoring a series of legislative victories at the end of his first term. Among those was a bill he championed that expanded the number of charter schools in exchange for $250 million in federal funding from the Obama administration. Rebounding from low poll numbers, he won reelection in 2010, after a campaign that reintroduced voters to his soaring oratory. Days later, he declared he would not seek a third term, making himself a lame duck with more than four years left in office.

  Now, as he nears the end of his turbulent turn in office, Patrick says he is eager to take a “long, warm-weather nap” and rejoin the private sector. He remains a historic figure, the first African-American governor in a state with a painful history of racial conflict.

  Yet many of his accomplishments have been overshadowed by the management problems that flared in his final years in office, when he also looked overseas for traction, traveling on trade missions.

  He has openly contemplated a presidential campaign — maybe after 2016, he says. If he were to run on a national stage, each action he has taken over the past years would be analyzed and scrutinized, and the inevitable tension between his lyrical rhetoric and concrete actions measured and debated. The picture of Patrick’s legacy that emerged would probably be much more complex than he envisioned that first day overlooking the Common, with some promises fulfilled but others slashed or reshaped by the recession and his rocky relationship with legislators.

  “He never got comfortable with those relationships,” said Daniel O’Connell, who was Patrick’s housing and economic development secretary from 2007 to 2009. “The manual wasn’t there in the governor’s office for how you navigate the Legislature, and that was frustrating, and got more frustrating over time.” // Patrick said he is proud of his record — on the economy, education, and infrastructure — but surprised by how difficult it was to persuade legislators to agree with him. // “I thought substance would be as important — maybe more important — than the performance art part of it,” he said in an interview. “The job really is a blend of the two. And if you get the substance right, but the performance art wrong, or off-key in some way, it’s really hard to get to the substance. And that’s a tough, tough lesson for me.”

  (Followed by five sections of analysis and history)

  In the waning months of his governorship, a majority of voters polled by the Globe found Patrick “about average” compared with other recent governors.

  And what about the 1,000 new police officers and the cut in property taxes that he promised during those heady days of his first campaign? They never came to pass. Patrick called his failure to deliver property tax relief one of his biggest disappointments. But he said he achieved almost every other objective he had. // And he notes that, despite all the rumors to the contrary, he held true to his commitment to serve out two full terms, something none of his recent predecessors had done. // “I said I was going to do this job and do it until I was done with it after two terms and, though no one believed me, I have stayed and kept that promise,” he said. “I said what it is we wanted to accomplish, and I would say nine out of 10 things we said we would accomplish, we have.”

Col. Richard McKeon

STATE POLICE SUPERINTENDENT

• “colonel mckeon mass state police“ Yahoo search [Yahoo? Really? Wow, dork.]

• Col. Richard McKeon was appointed by Governor Baker to lead the department in July 2015. He joined the Massachusetts State Police in 1982.

  • Outgoing state police chief Col. Timothy Alben reflects on past, mulls future - 07/08/2015 - By Stephanie Barry

    BOSTON - Outgoing Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben's future plans are not crystal clear.

    After three years as the state's top trooper, the East Longmeadow resident is retiring to make way for a new pick by Gov. Charlie Baker, he says, with no hard feelings.

    Alben was appointed by former Gov. Deval L. Patrick and sworn in in 2012. He has weathered the Boston Marathon bombings, the Aaron Hernandez murder trial, a crippling winter and the unavoidable politics of the job - which he also says he doesn't feel a victim of.

    "The governor is entitled to have his own team," Alben said during an interview on Wednesday after Baker announced he was appointing Major Richard McKeon as Alben's replacement after months of speculation in law enforcement circles.

    Prior to being appointed colonel, Alben was commander of the Division of Field Services.

    As to whether he'll miss the job, Alben's response was mixed.

    "I'm going to miss the people I work with every day. I've seen a lot of brave acts and committed people; I will miss those folks," he said. "But is there's a lot that goes along with being colonel of the state police ... including daily personnel issues. And, we're living in a current climate where there's a lot of suspicion over police integrity and use of force issues, which I think are baseless."

    Of his successor, Alben said there may be something of a learning curve in terms of financing, budgets, staffing and capital projects but that troopers are well-trained as they move up the ranks.

    "I think he'll do a fine job here. All of our officers, they come up through the ranks and they know what to do when they get there," he said.

    McKeon is a 33-year veteran of the state police who currently serves as deputy division commander of the Division of Investigative Services. His official start date is July 12.

    "I would like to thank Governor Baker, Lieutenant Governor Polito, and Secretary Bennett for putting their faith in me to lead this proud organization forward," McKeon said in a written statement. "During my 33 years in the State Police I have been fortunate to receive a great deal of knowledge and guidance from the many professionals within the Department, and I look forward to putting all that I have learned to work on behalf of the public that we serve each day."

    Prior to his promotion in 2011, McKeon was a captain and unit commander for the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Worcester County District Attorney's Office in Auburn.

    It is yet unclear how many applicants there were for the job. The Republican has a request for information pending with state public safety officials.

  • http://www.mass.gov/governor/press-office/press-releases/fy2016/governor-baker-appoints-new-state-police-superintendent.html (this link got whitewashed—how unsurprising and morosely hilarious)

    • Their Twitter still links to it, though: “.@MassGovernor appoints Major Richard D. McKeon Jr. as new Superintendent.“

• Mass. State Police head retires amid criticism of altered report - By Andrea Estes, AP - November 10, 2017 - "Part of our code of honor is understanding when your own personal ambition detracts from the greater good of our mission," McKeon said in a statement Friday. "I have today decided that putting the greater good of the Massachusetts State Police first, necessitates my decision to retire after 35 years of proud service."

  His retirement is effective on Nov. 17.

  Col. McKeon was one of the department heads sued this week by a trooper, who claims that he was ordered to scrub an arrest report involving a judge’s daughter of embarrassing remarks and details.

  Trooper Ryan Sceviour said that he was disciplined and told to change the arrest report for Alli Bibaud, who was found in possession of a heroin kit and charged with operating under the influence.

  Bibaud’s father is Judge Timothy Bibaud, who sits on the state Trial Court.

  Sceviour said he was ordered to remove Bibaud’s statements referencing her father’s position, offering sexual acts in exchange for leniency and that she had performed such acts in exchange for drugs.

  • Trooper Says Massachusetts State Police Forced Him to Alter Report of Judge's Daughter's Arrest - By Michael Rosenfield - November 8, 2017

    "It's terrible," said Sceviour's attorney, Leonard Kesten. "What they did to this trooper is so wrong."

    "One was 'my dad is an [expletive] judge,' and the other was that she indicated during the booking process she was suggesting the possibility of sexual favors in return for leniency," said Kesten.

    Two days later, the trooper received a voicemail ordering him to the police barracks.

    "That's an order from the colonel, and it's got something to do with an arrest report, a judge's daughter," the message states.

    Sceviour's attorney says the trooper was told to remove Bibaud's embarrassing statements.

    "Trooper Sceviour said to the major, 'Would this be happening if this wasn't the daughter of a judge?'" Kesten said. "She said, 'no, it wouldn't, that's why you're here.'"

    In a statement, a State Police spokesman said, in part, the substance of the police report never changed and that “The revision consisted only of removal of a sensationalistic, directly-quoted statement by the defendant, which made no contribution to proving the elements of the crime with which she was charged. Inclusion of an unnecessary statement does not meet the report-writing standards required by the department."

    A state police spokesperson said in a statement that only "a sensationalistic, directly-quoted statement" was removed, and that "inclusion of an unncecessary statement does not meet the report-writing standards required by the department."

    "That's not true," Kesten responded. "It's never taken out, you're supposed to put every communication with a suspect into your police report."

    The full statement from Massachusetts State Police is below:

    Supervisory members of the State Police, up to and including the Colonel, may review any report and have the responsibility to order any appropriate revisions. In the report in question, the revision consisted only of removal of a sensationalistic, directly-quoted statement by the defendant, which made no contribution to proving the elements of the crimes with which she was charged. Inclusion of an unnecessary sensationalistic statement does not meet the report-writing standards required by the department. The revised report - which is clearly marked as having been revised -includes all observations made by troopers, all descriptions of physical evidence found in the defendant's possession, and summaries of statements made by the defendant relative to her possession and use of heroin, all of which constitute clear evidence against her. Furthermore, both versions of the report were submitted to the court. The removal of the inflammatory and unnecessary quotation did not change the substance of the trooper's narrative, did not remove any elements of probable cause from the report, and, most importantly, had no impact on the charges against the defendant. The defendant remains charged -- as she was initially charged -- with operating under the influence of drugs, operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and two other motor vehicle offenses, and she will be held accountable for those crimes based on the evidence collected by State Police.

• (Estes cont.) ^^ The trooper alleges that the order to change his report came from Public Safety Secretary Daniel Bennett through State Police Superintendent Col. Richard McKeon and down the ranks.

  Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday that Bennett had nothing to do with the order, but launched an internal investigation into Sceviour’s allegations.

  A second lawsuit filed on Friday alleges Major Sue Anderson ordered Trooper Ali Rei to erase entries about Bibaud from a department computer and to take information out of a log and shred it.

  • ^v^ Shakeup in the State Police – Col. McKeon retires amid altered report allegations - Nov 10, 2017

    The state police have also been rocked in recent weeks by a scandal involving questionable methods used by four ranking supervisors and one trooper, which may have been designed to beat the system and collect extra pay for work not done.

    5 Investigates spent six months investigating the situation and found that certain members of Troop E were paid for more than 100 overtime shifts targeting dangerous drivers where no speeding tickets were written at all.

    The four lieutenants highlighted in the 5 Investigates report were transferred out of Troop E in late October.

    A state police spokesperson told 5 Investigates that in some cases, citations may not have been written during overtime shifts due to lieutenants performing other duties or responding to calls.

    The spokesperson added that the department has no tolerance for misconduct.

    Major Sue Anderson was also involved in the firestorm created by word of a possible quota system for troopers exposed by 5 Investigates.

    Troop and station commander memos and emails called for new performance standards where under-performers would be reprimanded and high achievers rewarded.

    The department said they have no quotas and that this was all a misunderstanding.

• (Estes cont.) ^^ "That's completely ridiculous," said Trooper Dana Pullman, president of the State Police Association. "Troopers operate under the same rules as any other police officer. Evidence is collected. Every statement, every utterance is put in the police report. It benefits the trooper, it benefits the prosecutor, it benefits the defendant."

  • Massachusetts State Police Chief Retires Following Claims of Altered Arrest Reports - By Marc Fortier - November 10, 2017

    "The resignation of Colonel McKeon is a good start to rectify the misuse of power that took place under his administration," Dana Pullman, president of the Massachusetts State Police Association, said Friday. "It’s imperative that the new colonel make sweeping changes at all levels of the command staff and leadership to fully address this matter. We need stop the blatant abuse of power."

    "The Colonel made it pretty clear this was an order from him," Gov. Charlie Baker said Friday night. "I think the Colonel made a mistake by getting involved in this, he took full responsibility for issuing the order, I believe it was a mistake."

    "The Governor believes that Colonel McKeon made a mistake by getting involved in the Bibaud case and has ordered the State Police to examine procedures for the review of arrest reports," said Lizzy Guyton, the governor's communications director. "Governor Baker recognizes the motivation to protect those with substance use disorders from potentially embarrassing information contained in their public records and expects the courts to hold the defendant accountable for all charges stemming from this incident."

    The Massachusetts Attorney General's office is investigating to see if anything criminal may have taken place as there are allegations public records may have been destroyed. 

  • Mass. state trooper claims he was forced to change DUI arrest record for judge's daughter - November 8, 2017

    A Massachusetts state trooper is claiming that he was forced to alter an arrest record for a local judge’s daughter after she was stopped for driving under the influence.

    Trooper Ryan Sceviour, 29, was reprimanded last month for allegedly including comments about oral sex in the Oct. 16 arrest report of Allie Bibaud, the daughter of Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud.

    During her arrest, Bibaud allegedly said: “My dad’s a [expletive] judge. He’s going to kill me,” along with comments seemingly implying she would trade sexual favors for leniency.

    Sceviour wrote everything she said in his report. He claims he was simply doing his job.

    But Bibaud’s father allegedly asked friends in positions of authority to have the comment removed from the arrest report, Boston 25 reported.

    Sceviour claims his superiors, including State Police Major Susan Anderson, forced him to redact the arrest warrant three days later and threatened to fire him if he refused.

    “You are to immediately code 7 to the barracks, per the colonel. It’s an order from the colonel. It’s got something to do with an arrest report, umm, a judge’s daughter,” said a voicemail recording left on Sceviour’s phone.

    After Sceviour edited the report, he was reprimanded for including her salty language.

    “The revision consisted only of removal of a sensationalistic and inflammatory directly quoted statement by the defendant, which made no contribution to proving the elements of the crimes with which she was charged. Inclusion of an unnecessary sensationalistic statement does not meet the report-writing standards required by the department,” a police statement said at the time.

    Sceviour told Boston 25 he has not been able to sleep since he was forced to alter the police report. He wants an apology and to clear his name.

    “They have impaired his reputation. People hear his name, ‘isn’t that guy who faked the report. Isn’t that the guy who covered up for the judge?’” Sceviour’s attorney Lenny Kesten told the news station. “He said, ’I don’t want to. This is wrong.’ He said, ‘this is morally wrong.’ [Anderson] said it’s a direct order from the colonel.”

    In a statement, the state police stood behind its decision to revise the arrest report.

    “The removal of the inflammatory and unnecessary quotation did not change the substance of the trooper’s narrative, did not remove any elements of probable cause from the report, and, most importantly, had no impact on the charges against the defendant,” the statement read. “The defendant remains charged – as she was initially charged -- with operating under the influence of drugs, operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and two other motor vehicle offenses, and she will be held accountable for those crimes based on the evidence collected by State Police.”

  • Massachusetts State Police colonel retires amid criticism of altered report - November 11, 2017

    A Massachusetts State Police colonel abruptly retired Friday amid accusations a trooper was forced to alter an arrest record for a judge’s daughter to avoid embarrassing them.

    His retirement was announced a day after Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said he was investigating the allegations.

    Trooper Ryan Sceviour, 29, said in a federal lawsuit filed this week that he was ordered to remove embarrassing information about Allie Bibaud, the daughter of Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud,who allegedly failed sobriety tests and indicated she was a heroin addict.

    The judge’s daughter was arrested on Oct. 16 after she allegedly swerved into a police construction detail on I-190 in Worcester.

    • A federal lawsuit was filed this week by a state trooper, Ryan Sceviour, who said he was forced to alter reports regarding a car crash involving 30-year-old Alli Bibaud, the daughter of Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud.

      In his suit, Sceviour stated he responded on Oct. 16 to a car crash on Interstate 190 in Worcester and arrested Alli Bibaud, after she failed field sobriety tests and was found to have a heroin kit in the car, the lawsuit said.

      • When arrested last month, Alli Bibaud was free on personal recognizance awaiting a Dec. 21 arraignment on charges of heroin possession and failure to wear a seat belt from a May traffic stop in Shrewsbury. The police report indicates the officer saw her trying to conceal a hypodermic needle, then found a stash of drugs. The court file does not include any embarrassing remarks or any sign that remarks were redacted. But the arrest report lists her father’s name simply as “Tim.” Her lawyers did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

    • Bibaud, screaming and crying during her trip to the Holden barracks, told Sceviour her father was a judge and during booking suggested “she would offer sexual favors in return for leniency” and later indicated “she had performed sexual acts in order to pay for the drugs,” the lawsuit said. That information was originally included in her arrest report.

      Days after he wrote the report, his lawsuit said, Sceviour was awoken at his home by a trooper and ordered to drive to the barracks to edit out the woman’s embarrassing statements.

      “This is an order … we all have bosses,” Sceviour, and his union representative were told by a supervisor, according to the suit. The supervisor indicated the “order” came from Secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Daniel Bennett to state police Col. Richard McKeon and down the ranks, the lawsuit said. Bennett this week categorically denied giving the order. 

    During her arrest, Bibaud allegedly said: “My dad’s a [expletive] judge. He’s going to kill me,” along with comments seemingly suggesting she would swap sexual favors for leniency.

    Sceviour did not say McKeon directly ordered him to change the report.

    State police admitted the trooper was asked to alter the report and have defended the action, saying he included information that wasn't relevant to her arrest.

    “They have impaired his reputation. People hear his name, ‘isn’t that guy who faked the report. Isn’t that the guy who covered up for the judge?’” Lenny Kesten, an attorney, told FOX 25 Boston.

    McKeon said in a letter to Public Safety Secretary Daniel Bennett on Friday that he often instructed subordinates "to focus the arrest report on information relevant to charges made against the individual."

    • The Worcester DA’s office took a similar tack in its approach to the case: Prosecutor Jeffrey Travers went before a Worcester District Court judge four days after Bibaud’s arrest and sought to redact Bibaud’s statements from the police report because they were “purely prejudicial to the defendant.”

      “The commonwealth is suggesting the redactions, which I’ve handed up, are appropriate given the commonwealth’s ethical obligations to avoid unnecessary pretrial publicity with respect to the defendant,” Travers told the judge, according to an audio recording of the hearing obtained by the Herald. “I suggest to you the statements are extraneous to anything in reply to the finding of probable cause and really are purely prejudicial to the defendant."

      The judge allowed the redactions.

    McKeon said in his retirement announcement that the past few days were “difficult” for him and the police force.

    “We have always been highly scrutinized for how we perform our duties, as any police agency should be, and these last few days have been no exception. That public examination, while sometimes uncomfortable, comes with the great authority bestowed upon us, and we must always pay attention to how we are perceived by those whom we serve and protect,” McKeon wrote.

  • DA backs impounding of report on judge's daughter - James F. Russell - Nov 10, 2017

    WORCESTER — District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. agrees with defense claims that a police report involving the arrest of a judge’s daughter, a former employee of Mr. Early’s office, should not be seen by the public.

    In a statement Friday, he said the woman “would be at risk from prejudicial pretrial publicity.”

    After the document was impounded by a judge, Mr. Early’s office had sections of the police report involving the woman blacked out - language that allegedly showed the woman, whose father is Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud, offering to sell herself for leniency and to obtain illicit drugs.

    Judge Bibaud was employed at the Worcester DA’s office from Jan. 11, 1982, through Jan. 13, 1992, and from August 17, 1992, through August 26, 2010, before becoming a judge.

    • BOTH STATIONED AT WORCESTER — a friendship as long as their careers

    The police report’s contents describe a state trooper’s Oct. 16 arrest of 30-year-old Alli Bibaud, on drunken driving and other charges.

    Ms. Bibaud crashed her car on Interstate 190 in Worcester while allegedly impaired by alcohol and in possession of heroin, the police report says.

    Two days before commanding officers ordered the trooper who arrested Ms. Bibaud to alter the report by removing statements made by the woman, Mr. Early’s office had made a decision that they would not oppose barring public access to that document.

    The district attorney took no action to oppose a defense motion on Oct. 17 to impound the document, which meant the public was prohibited from examining it.

    The police report describes Ms. Bibaud’s behavior when she was booked.

    Following the impoundment proposed by the defense attorney for Ms. Bibaud, Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Travers, on Oct. 20, received the judge’s permission to remove, via redaction, some of Ms. Bibaud’s statements the state police recorded in the report.

    According to a whistleblower lawsuit filed by Trooper Ryan N. Sceviour on Nov. 7 against Col. Richard D. McKeon and Major Susan Anderson, the commanders wanted the trooper to remove sections from his report alluding to Ms. Bibaud saying that her father is a judge; about her allegedly offering her body in exchange for leniency; and language about resources she used to purchase narcotics.

    Trooper Sceviour, who arrested Ms. Bibaud, says in the complaint against top state police officials that the Worcester DA “redactions made in the original report are similar to the items that Trooper Sceviour was ordered to remove.”

    A state police spokesman said the agency was within its rights to alter the crime report.

    Col. McKeon announced his retirement Friday. Gov. Charlie Baker and Attorney General Maura Healey issued statements saying they are reviewing the “serious” allegations contained in the Sceviour lawsuit.

    Ms. Healey, in a statement Friday issued before Col. McKeon’s retirement announcement, said through a spokeswoman: “The allegations in this complaint are seriously concerning, and our office is reviewing the matter to learn more.”

    A spokesperson for Mr. Baker said after the retirement announcement that, “The governor believes that Col. McKeon made a mistake by getting involved in the Bibaud case.”

    Asked whether the Worcester DA’s office could appear to be protecting the defendant, thus possibly weakening successful prosecution of the case, Mr. Early said Friday: “No action has ever been taken to weaken the ability to prosecute this case. Protecting the defendant’s right to a fair trial is a part of my job.”

    Mr Early, in a prepared statement requested by the Telegram & Gazette, also explained why he does not want the public to have access to the police report.

    “The District Attorney’s Office did not oppose the defense motion to impound the police report because the prosecution agreed with the defense claim that the defendant’s right to a fair trial would be at risk from prejudicial pretrial publicity should these records not be impounded. In this case, Judge David Locke allowed the motion to impound.”

    Standard law enforcement practice includes video and audio recording during police bookings of individuals arrested for driving under the influence — producing a permanent record that can be introduced as evidence in court by the prosecution and/or defendant. To date, no one has suggested that any video or audio evidence was altered, nor have any requests been made to expunge details from those permanent records.

    In response to a question about redacting the state police report that had already been impounded, Mr. Early said, “the District Attorney’s office filed the motion to redact in open court and on the record because it has an affirmative obligation to protect the rights of the accused.”

    He referred to the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct writing: “Preserving the right to a fair trial necessarily entails some curtailment of the information that may be disseminated about a party to trial”, and that a “prosecutor has the responsibility of a minister of justice and not simply that of an advocate.”

    Mr. Early went on to say that his office “will move to impound and redact the police reports that contain information that is unnecessary for the probable cause determination, damaging to the integrity of the case, or otherwise prejudicial to the accused’s rights to a fair trial.”

    He said that, “impoundment requests are routinely done to protect victims, witnesses, and constitutional rights. The impoundment order may be changed by motion and the redacted material may be made public.”

    Mr. Early wrote that the “redaction of the limited information in the report did not affect the admissible evidence contained within the report, the parties right to a fair trial, and does not limit the prosecutor from using any facts contained in the report as the case moves through the trial process.” Judge David P. Despotopoulos approved the DA’s motion to redact information from the police report.

    Ms. Bibaud was taken in handcuffs and booked at the Holden state police barracks, where her license to drive was taken from her after police said her blood alcohol level registered three times the legal limit.

    She was released to the custody of her father early on the morning of Oct. 17.

    Instead of Ms. Bibaud being arraigned that morning, when the original state police report was filed in Central District Court in Worcester, and being formally charged by the Worcester DA, her arraignment did not take place because Ms. Bibaud was hospitalized.

    The arraignment took place Oct. 30 in Framingham District Court.

  • Col. McKeon retires amid report dispute - Steven H. Foskett Jr. - Nov 10, 2017

    The head of the Massachusetts State Police submitted his intention to retire Friday, in the wake of controversy concerning the handling of a police report concerning the daughter of a Dudley District Court judge.

    In a letter to Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Secretary Daniel Bennett, Col. Richard D. McKeon noted “increasing media and public controversy over how my office handled the processing of a woman in Worcester County after a Trooper arrested her on charges stemming from erratic behavior and potential threat to others in her operation of a motor vehicle.”

    Without naming 30-year-old Alli Bibaud, the colonel defended the handling of her case in the letter. He wrote that his “decision to instruct subordinates to focus the arrest report on information relevant to the charges made against the individual without compromising the strength of the case is instruction that I have given to the men and women under my command more times than I can remember.”

    He added that the case was “not unlike thousands of cases we are involved in every year involving drug addiction.”

    Ms. Bibaud, daughter of Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud, and a former employee of the Worcester District Attorney’s office, was arrested Oct. 16 on drunken-driving charges. She crashed her car on Interstate 190 in Worcester while allegedly impaired by alcohol and in possession of heroin, the police report says.

    Commanding officers ordered the trooper who arrested her to alter the police report by removing statements she made including references by Ms. Bibaud to sexual acts she said she had performed to obtain drugs and that she offered to perform in exchange for leniency after her arrest.

    In his letter, Col. McKeon, a 35-year veteran of the state police, wrote that department members have been trained to exercise their power and authority judiciously and to treat offenders with courtesy and respect.

    “Our job is to enforce the law, bring charges consistent with the facts, and present the case to the court in an orderly and honest manner,” he wrote.

    The state trooper who initially responded to the crash, Ryan N. Sceviour, filed a lawsuit against Col. McKeon and Major Susan Anderson in U.S. District Court in Boston, alleging that they ordered him to alter a police report and illegally tamper with court documents. Another trooper who responded to the crash that night, Ali Rei, filed an additional lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Boston against Col. McKeon and Maj. Anderson outlining similar allegations.

    Boston lawyer Leonard H. Kesten, who is representing both troopers, said Friday night it was “nonsense” for Col. McKeon to state in his letter that his instruction to subordinates to “focus the arrest report” was something routine or commonplace. He said he has shown the reports to law enforcement experts who uniformly say there’s nothing wrong with them. He said it sends the wrong message to law enforcement officers - if anything, troopers should be encouraged to be more inclusive in their reports, not less inclusive.

    “It’s unfortunate his long career is ending under a cloud, but actions have consequences,” Mr. Kesten said. “The colonel was responsible for ordering two troopers who were doing their jobs to do something inappropriate.”

    Mr. Kesten said he’s grateful Gov. Charlie Baker, who this week ordered an internal probe into the matter, is taking it seriously. The public’s faith in state police and its leadership needs to be restored.

    • Yesterday, Gov. Charlie Baker and Attorney General Maura Healey said they had launched separate probes into the matter, with Baker promising a speedy conclusion to what he dubbed a “significant” investigation.

      “Governor Baker appreciates Colonel McKeon’s service to the Massachusetts State Police, is thankful for his commitment to the Commonwealth’s public safety and wishes him well in his retirement," Baker said in a statement released tonight, immediately after McKeon stepped down. "The Governor believes that Colonel McKeon made a mistake by getting involved in the Bibaud case and has ordered the State Police to examine procedures for the review of arrest reports.  Governor Baker recognizes the motivation to protect those with substance use disorders from potentially embarrassing information contained in their public records and expects the courts to hold the defendant accountable for all charges stemming from this incident.”

    Col. McKeon was named in 2015 superintendent and colonel of the 2,300-trooper state police. He was formerly head of the state police detective unit assigned to the office of District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr.

    A graduate of Framingham State College with a master’s degree in criminal justice from Anna Maria College in Paxton, Col. McKeon served as captain and unit commander of the state police detective unit assigned to Mr. Early’s office from 2007 until 2011, when he was promoted from captain to major and transferred. He had previously served for about 20 years as a member of the detective unit, then known as the Crime Prevention and Control Unit, under Mr. Early’s predecessor, John J. Conte.

    In a communication Col. McKeon sent to the department expanding upon his decision to retire, he wrote that “what has been lost in the headlines in recent days is another part of the unspoken code that we follow - to do our jobs with professionalism, compassion, and empathy.”

    “The governor believes that Col. McKeon made a mistake by getting involved in the Bibaud case and has ordered the state police to examine procedures for the review of arrest reports. Gov. Baker recognizes the motivation to protect those with substance use disorders from potentially embarrassing information contained in their public records and expects the courts to hold the defendant accountable for all charges stemming from this incident,” spokeswoman Lizzy Guyton said.

    The administration said the negative “observation reports” given to Sceviour as reprimand for his handling of the report would be removed from his file.

    • SCANDAL: Mass. State Police Colonel “retires” after two troopers challenge orders to change report… - Robert Bastille - November 10, 2017

    • HIS RETIREMENT LETTER (scribd):

      Message from Colonel McKeon

      Dear Colleagues,

      The past few days have been difficult for the MSP and for me, in particular. We have always been highly scrutinized for how we perform our duties, as any police agency should be, and these last few days have been no exception. That public examination, while sometimes uncomfortable, comes with the great authority bestowed upon us, and we must always pay attention to how we are perceived by those whom we serve and protect.

      Each and every one of you is on my mind today, as you have been during the past two-and-a-half years during which I have had the honor and privilege to serve as your Superintendent. We may at times disagree on how we do this job, but I have no doubt that the more than 2,000 men and women who put their lives on the line every day for the Massachusetts State Police are dedicated to doing their very best every day to protect the honor of our corps and the safety of our citizens.

      Part of our code of honor is understanding when your own personal ambition detracts from the greater good of our mission. I have today decided that putting the greater good of the Massachusetts State Police first, necessitates my decision to retire after 35 years of proud service. I am honored to have served as your Superintendent and grateful for the honor of working with you. I am also thankful to the Governor and the Secretary of Public Safety and Security for the privilege of serving in this position.

      What has been lost in the headlines in recent days is another part of the unspoken code that we follow — to do our jobs with professionalism, compassion and empathy.

      You are counted as among the most elite police forces in the country because you have learned to balance the need to enforce the law with an understanding that those we arrest are people with real lives and aspirations who have stumbled. The lesson I learned early in my career, have lived by ever since, and have tried to impart to those I’ve had the privilege to command, is that you can do your job to protect the public safety while also understanding that even offenders are people who need to reclaim their lives and move on after they have paid their debt.

      This is perhaps no more true than it is for those who have been victimized by the scourge of opioid abuse. We have fought the opioid epidemic on multiple fronts, including enforcement, treatment, and education. Illegal use of narcotics is a crime, and we never have backed down, and never will, from investigating, arresting, and prosecuting those who break our drug trafficking and possession laws. But opioid addiction is also a sickness, and as police officers, we stand tallest when we treat everyone we encounter with respect and decency.

      This fellowship that is the MSP has existed for 152 years and our agency will continue to be one of the greatest police forces in this country. But it needs the good and conscientious work of each and every one of you who wear the badge, to demonstrate not only your ability to enforce the law, but also to understand that how you enforce the law is every bit as important.

      Thank you one and all for serving alongside me. It had been a privilege to serve as your Superintendent.

      Sincerely,

      Colonel Richard D. McKeon

      Superintendent

      Massachusetts State Police

• Governor Charlie Baker Appoints New State Police Superintendent - Colonel Kerry Gilpin to take command of 2,100 Massachusetts State Police Troopers and 540 civilian staff - 11/15/2017 - Governor’s Press Office, for Immediate Release

  BOSTON — Today, Governor Charlie Baker announced the appointment of Colonel Kerry Gilpin to serve as Superintendent and Colonel of the Massachusetts State Police (MSP). A 23-year veteran of the State Police, Colonel Gilpin most recently served as Deputy Division Commander of the Division of Standards and Training. Her appointment is effective today.

  “It is the mission of the Massachusetts State Police to keep the Commonwealth safe and I have the utmost confidence that Colonel Gilpin will excel as the leader of our tremendous police force,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “Colonel Gilpin brings decades of experience and knowledge to her post, with a deep understanding of the state police force at every level. I thank Colonel Gilpin for her dedication and willingness to serve the Commonwealth in this important position, and look forward to working with her to protect our communities.”

  “Colonel Gilpin became a trooper for the right reasons, because she wanted to help victims of crime and has showed leadership in each position she has been asked to take on in the State Police,” said Secretary of Public Safety and Security Daniel Bennett. “I am confident that she will be a great colonel because of the tremendous dedication she has shown over the course of her career.”

  Colonel Kerry Gilpin joined the Massachusetts State Police in 1994 and most recently served as Deputy Division Commander for the Division of Standards and Training where she was responsible for the coordination of all training for the 83rd Recruit Training Troop, State Police Municipal Association and Special State Police Officers, including training for Massachusetts’ federal, state and local partners.  A 1994 State Police Academy graduate, Gilpin has extensive experience within the Department, having served in the Crime Scene Services Section as a Trooper and Sergeant, and as a Lieutenant in the Division of Field Services, the Staff Inspections Section, and the Harassment Investigation Unit. She was promoted to Captain in the Division of Standards and Training in May 2016 and then promoted to Major within the Division in November 2016. A resident of Hampden, Colonel Gilpin earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Western New England College in Springfield. From December 2016 to June 2017, she attended the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard University where her team project was focused on reducing deaths caused by the opioid epidemic.

• Retiring Col. Richard McKeon may collect $188G pension - LAUREL J. SWEET - Nov 14, 2017

  Retiring state police Col. Richard McKeon could collect a $188,000-a-year pension after he calls it quits Friday, all while facing scathing criticism for ordering state troopers to delete embarrassing details from the arrest report of a judge’s daughter.

  McKeon, 62, had not filed paperwork as of yesterday with the state Retirement Board. But state police officers with more than 25 years of service are entitled to up to 75 percent of their final year’s pay. McKeon, with the state police since 1982, now makes $251,000 a year.

  Two state troopers have filed federal lawsuits naming McKeon and others after being ordered to scrub embarrassing remarks from the drug and OUI arrest report of Alli Bibaud, 30, the daughter of Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud. Attorney General Maura Healey has said she’s reviewing the allegations.

  McKeon’s quick exit amid a review, with the potential of a full pension, has irked the rank-and-file, State Police Association of Massachusetts president Dana Pullman said. “If (a trooper) wanted to leave out the back door, you’d have to pay for it. You’d be giving back time and you’d get a general discharge. Our members are irate about this. That would never be afforded one of our guys.”

  State retirees can be stripped of pensions only if convicted of crimes directly linked to their job. But it’s unclear what direction Healey’s review could take.

  “That’s up to the attorney general for the most part,” said Greg Sullivan, a former state inspector general now at the Pioneer Institute. “But this story struck a nerve with a lot of people because the average person is not going to get that break.”

MST Shawn D’Amato

HER HUSBAND AND HIS CRACK-ADDICTED PARTNER

• Lisa Kenney’s ex-husband, William P. Kenney, Jr., wants custody of their now-adult daughter. 

• The other trooper, Shawn D’Amato, is the vengeful one who does most of the harassment:

  • “shawn damato mass trooper” Yahoo search [Yahoo? Really? Again?]

  • Massachusetts trooper admits he smoked crack before crashing into another officer’s car: prosecutors - Joe Kemp - Nov 27, 2013

  • D’Amato *allegedly* used to email Kenney saying he'd rape her then-15-year-old daughter, to steal the girl’s virginity as a cruelty to Kenney.

  • Shawn D'Amato v. Sharon Costine [1] et al. [2] No. 134750

  • 16-342 - Kenney v. Massachusetts State Police et al

  • Civil No. 16-cv-342-JL — Lisa A. Kenney v. Massachusetts State Police et al.

  • 16-2162 — Kenney v. Massachusetts State Police, et al

  • Kenney v. Massachusetts State Police et al (Judge Joseph N Laplante)

  • United States v. Gary P. Neal, United States v. William F. Kenney, Jr., United States v. Charles J. Flynn, A/K/A Chucky, 36 F.3d 1190 (1st Cir. 1994)

    • United States, Appellee, v. Gary P. Neal, Defendant, Appellant. United States, Appellee, v. William F. Kenney, Jr., Defendant, Appellant. United States, Appellee, v. Charles J. Flynn, a/k/a Chucky, Defendant, Appellant, 36 F.3d 1190 (1st Cir. 1994)

• Ex-husband of 20 years is vengeful cop; he and other troopers were stealing federal grant money from medical; breaking into her car and house; regarding the judge of her case against him, he fixed the judge's daughter’s arrest report to win case—she told the colonel she had evidence of it, and he retired the next day (now she's starting a federal case; took forever to get a lawyer because whenever the prospective lawyer asked for her ex's name they realized "no, not him, not taking the case" some twenty times); cut her brake lines three times; discredit her; she ropes her car closed because they can break in with his copy of key, but they want to be stealthy so they don’t cut the rope (?); rewards druggie criminals for following her and sabotage (also slash tires, smash windows, cut brakes); techies like Anonymous are on his side; she bought the military RFID shield bags to conceal her laptop and phone, since he's after her laptop for the evidence she has on it; Mike Gill, her friend, re Alex Walker, the slander accounts on the big guys (politicians, business) via his mortgage electronic billboard—she reports the cops and middle men; misinformation campaign from call-ins fake, to mike gill, to overwhelm the truth he speaks, so when he tells it all it's mostly lies DISCREDITED; emailed death threats and rape threats; she's reported by these cops as being every kind of criminal (child molester, thief, everything but murder); break into her house and put cameras in her bathroom to later email her about what they saw, and stole info, and left a cell phone behind (she found it, and on it was a shitload of calls back and forth between the few corrupt cops (?)); send letters to mayor and governor and chief of police but it's always intercepted, so once she hid a card of her account in a bouquet of flowers and sent that, and that one made it (as far as she knows); and she changes clothes on the bus and gets off, then pulls up a book to watch the cops go right past her in pursuit of the bus (supposedly).

  • Her brother (much younger; 30, as opposed to her 50) got a full ride to BU, went for astrophysics; got a C in a major-related course and threw a fit, changed majors—finished college and GOT A JOB as a bank teller. After 3 years had a tiff with a customer and quit, and moved back in with his mom (who is more of a grandmother due to her age) and played Halo for 15 hours a day. Mom told him eventually to bring home money for food, so he applies to admit himself into a loony bin (saying he is disabled mentally) but all docs say he is just depressed, so he applies for disability with the government. No doctor allows it, so finally her ex (William P. Kenney Jr.) supposedly says he can approve the disability via his doctor pal, if the bro simply flips on his sister. He becomes excited and "the happiest he's been in a long time," says mom. Other bro (her age) has $10k in debt and needs a new car and new roof, and from his club-owner businessman associate the ex has those all paid for in exchange for other-bro's allegiance—so both bros started stealing her evidence (tech and 80lbs of documents) and she caught on, and planted fake evidence in bags so as to track them taking it, and she saw these later at their homes (and on a hidden video camera). Damn.

    • https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1021 

    • wiki/Privacy_laws_of_the_United_States 

Robert Long

ROBERT LONG

• BOB LONG INVESTIGATIONS GROUP LLC (website looks visually as if it were last updated in 2007, but is actually current)

• His LinkedIn page: Mr. Long is certified in both fraud investigation (CFE) and homeland security (CHS). He holds multiple degrees in the criminal justice field, including a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice from Anna Maria College; a Bachelor of Science in Law Enforcement from Northeastern University; and an Associates Degree in Criminology from the City College of San Francisco. In addition, Mr. Long has been recognized in a Massachusetts Court as an expert in the science of investigations.

  Specialties: Asset Searches, Business Intelligence, Character Due Diligence, Computer Forensics, Corporate Investigations, Executive Protection, Litigation Support, Locates, Missing Persons, Risk Assessments, Security Consulting Services, Surveillance, Undercover Investigations

  • President

    • Boston Police Foundation

    • 2013 – Present  6 years

    • Boston, Massachusetts

    • The Boston Police Foundation was formed in 1993 to provide private financial support for critically needed resources to the Boston Police Department, the oldest police department in the country. Our supporters help fund special equipment, advanced training, new technology, officer safety and wellness, and youth outreach programs not covered in its annual budget.

  • Bob Long Investigations Group LLC

    • Owner

    • Bob Long Investigations Group LLC

    • 2009 – Present  10 years

    • The Bob Long Investigations Group LLC, provides high net worth individuals and clients in the legal, corporate, financial and business communities, with high level due diligence, investigative, and security consulting services, they need, in order to make more sound business decisions, and to mitigate unnecessary risk and exposure to personnel, property and assets.

      • The Bob Long Investigations Group LLC, provides high-net worth individuals and clients in the legal, corporate, and financial communities, with professional character due diligence, investigative, and security consulting services. This enables our clients to make more informed business decisions, while mitigating unnecessary risk or exposure to personnel, property, assets and reputation. — SERVICES:

      • Asset Searches, Business Intelligence, Character Due Diligence, Computer Forensics, Corporate Investigations, Executive Protection, Litigation Support, Locates, Missing Persons, Risk Assessments, Security Consulting Services, Surveillance, Undercover Investigations

      • “There are very convincing liars out there,” Long said. “I go into every background check very cynical.”

  • Garda World Security Corporation

    • Senior Managing Director

    • Garda World Security Corporation

    • 2002 – 2009  7 years

    • Responsible for overseeing client relations and operational oversight for the company's full line of investigative and security consulting services within New England and Florida. Vance International was acquired by Garda World Security Corporation in 2006.

  • LCF Associates

    • President and Managing Partner

    • LCF Associates

    • 1990 – 2002  12 years

    • A white-collar investigations and security firm serving the legal, corporate and financial communities. LCF Associates was sold to SPX Corp., a Fortune 500 company in 2002.

  • Massachusetts State Police

    • Detective Lieutenant Inspector

    • Massachusetts State Police

    • 1968 – 1989  21 years

      • In addition, Mr. Long has been appointed as a specially designated investigator, for both the New Hampshire and Massachusetts Federal Bankruptcy Courts for the purpose of locating and seizing fraudulently conveyed assets domestically and abroad.

      • Prior to his private sector career, Mr. Long had a highly decorated twenty-two year career with the Massachusetts State Police, stepping down at the senior officer rank of Detective Lieutenant Inspector, where he received dozens of commendations, including those from a U.S. President, FBI director, a number of governors, and area business groups.

        • In 1974, Mr. Long was the recipient of the prestigious State Police “Trooper of the Year Award” for his high success rate in a number of criminal investigations involving members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang and other major narcotics traffickers.

        • From 1977-1979, Mr. Long supervised a joint, State Police-FBI undercover investigation into truck-hijacking in the northeast corridor of the United States, that resulted in the arrest of forty-six individuals involved in organized crime, truck-hijacking and kidnapping, while obtaining a remarkable 100% conviction rate. The investigation, code named “Operation Lobster,” has been referred to in U.S. Congressional testimony as a national model.

        • From 1980-1981, Mr. Long developed the probable cause, and carried out the first court ordered electronic surveillance, on serial killers and mobsters James J. “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, which later served as the foundation for subsequent investigations and indictments.

        • From 1983-1990, Mr. Long served as the Chief Investigator for the Office of the Middlesex County District Attorney. During his tenure there he spearheaded a number of high profile criminal investigations involving multiple homicides, organized and white-collar crime, as well as police and political corruption. These successful investigations included the infamous Depositors Trust Robbery and Exam Scam that led to the arrest and incarceration of several police chiefs and other senior ranking law enforcement officials. His last investigation before retiring from the State Police led to the arrest and conviction of a fellow state police officer, known as “The Trooper Rapist.”

• Ex-Tewksbury state police detective didn’t need to see Bulger movie—he lived it - CHRIS CAMIRE - September 17, 2015

  The retired state police detective, formerly of Tewksbury, was part of an investigative team that captured surveillance footage of Whitey Bulger in 1980 and 1981 interacting with a who's who of Boston's criminal underworld.

  Long and his team of troopers set up shop in a "flop house" across the street from the garage.

  "The walls were paper thin," recalled Long, in an interview this week. "Derelicts. The mentally challenged. Hookers. No air conditioning. It was one hell hole."

  For four months, Long watched Bulger's every move. He took photos of him. He filmed him. He listened in on his conversations.

  The walls around Bulger were closing in until corrupt cops tipped him off. Suddenly, the conversations Long was listening in on changed.

  "The next time Bulger shows up, he starts talking about what a great job the state police are doing on the highways," said Long, chuckling.

  The investigation had been compromised. Soon after, Bulger and other members of the Winter Hill Gang stopped showing up at the garage altogether.

  Long would continue to pursue Bulger up until his retirement in 1990. Over that time he became a student of the man now considered one of the most dangerous -- and notorious -- mobsters in American history.

  "I remember the way he carried himself -- the cockiness, the arrogance, so sure of himself," said Long. "The only way you can be so sure of yourself is if you know you've got all the bases covered, that nobody's going to be coming after you because you've got the Boston police, the state police and the FBI all in your pocket."

  Long, 69, is not the type to fall victim to hyperbole. He sounds like a cop, speaking in short, direct sentences peppered with profanity -- all in a classic Boston accent. So you can take him at his word when he says seeing Black Mass was like "stepping back in time."

  "I spent years on Bulger, so I know all his mannerisms and his habits," said Long, now a private investigator. "I swear to God, I don't think anybody in the world except for Bulger himself could have done a better job than Johnny Depp did. He is one talented actor."

  Long has similar praise for Joel Edgerton, who plays John Connolly, the disgraced former Boston FBI agent and longtime handler of Bulger.

  "He was so freaking good, he should get an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor," said Long. "He really portrayed Connolly how he was. So, both of them deserve Oscars."

  Long's only complaint? With just two hours to work with, the filmmakers could not tell the full Bulger story. Long said key characters, such as Flemmi (Rory Cochrane), Kevin Weeks (Jesse Plemons) and hitman John Martorano (W. Earl Brown) were not fully developed. 

  "It was just too compressed," said Long. "It exposed the FBI corruption, but they didn't have enough time for the state police and their role. It's something that should have been a "Sopranos"-style weekly series. You just can't cover 35 years in two hours."

  The release of Black Mass has dredged up memories of one of Lowell's most notorious murders.

  In 1988, Bulger crony and mob enforcer William "Billy" Barnoski was convicted of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of local bookie John "Jackie" McDermott in his Lowell home.

  Long, then the head of the state police detective unit assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, had been following McDermott for years, primarily to get to the Winter Hill Gang. McDermott's successful bookmaking business had caught the attention of Bulger.

  Barnoski was reportedly sent to Lowell from the Winter Hill Gang to learn the bookmaking business from McDermott. But when McDermott turned state's witness on Barnoski to avoid jail time in a gambling-racketeering case, he signed his own death warrant.

  "That's why we went after McDermott," said Long. "To get to Barnoski to get to Bulger."

  Bulger was never charged in the murder. He fled Boston and went into hiding on December 23, 1994, after being tipped off by Connolly about a pending indictment.

• ROBERT J. LONG vs. COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC SAFETY (law.justia.com)

  ROBERT J. LONG vs. COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC SAFETY.

  26 Mass. App. Ct. 61

  December 7, 1987 - May 24, 1988

  Middlesex County

  In an action for a declaratory judgment brought by a State Police detective lieutenant inspector seeking seniority credit for promotion for years he spent performing the duties of a lieutenant detective when he did not hold that rank, the judge erred in ruling that the Commissioner of Public Safety's action in limiting seniority to "years of service in grade as a detective lieutenant" for the purpose of ranking candidates for promotion to the position of captain of detectives was arbitrary and capricious. [65-66]

  CIVIL ACTION commenced in the Superior Court Department on July 25, 1986.

  “On July 25, 1986, the plaintiff, a detective lieutenant inspector in the State police and an applicant for the position of captain of detectives, brought an action in the Superior Court against the Commissioner of Public Safety (commissioner). The complaint sought a declaration that he was entitled to a higher mark for seniority on the promotional examination. The matter was tried before a judge sitting without jury who found for the plaintiff. The commissioner has appealed from the ensuing judgment.”

  “Relevant to the issue presented by this case, there are two pertinent divisions of the State police, the uniformed branch (State constabulary) and the detective branch (office of investigation and intelligence). Members of the uniformed branch are appointed under the authority of G. L. c. 22, Section 9A, which both outlines the manner of appointment and explicitly exempts the appointees from the requirements of the civil service laws.” … “Prior to 1977, appointments to the detective branch were governed by G. L. c. 22, Section 6, and were subject to civil service laws. At that time, the detective branch drew its members, for the most part, from "outside" police agencies. Promotions beyond entry level (lieutenant) were governed solely by civil service laws. Chapter 22 did not specify the standards for promotion within the detective branch. Because of the civil service requirements as to Section 6 appointees, a State police officer appointed under Section 9A could not enter the detective branch except by resigning his former position and gaining an appointment under G. L. c. 22, Section 6, and the civil service laws.” “In 1977, the Legislature sought to erase some of these anomalies by creating a new position of detective lieutenant inspector in the detective branch, exempt from the civil service laws. [Note 1] G. L. c. 22, Section 9S. The legislation established a competitive examination and standards for promotion to that rank for all applicants, including members of the uniformed branch. In creating the new position, however, the Legislature did not alter statutory provisions relating to promotion beyond the rank of detective lieutenant inspector. General Laws c. 22, Section 9P, still provided that the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel in the detective branch must be filled only by officers appointed pursuant to G. L. c. 22, Section 6. No provision of the General Laws, however, establishes standards for promotion to those ranks or requires competitive examinations for those positions.”

  “On March 11, 1986, the commissioner notified qualified officers, including the plaintiff, of a promotional examination for the rank of captain of detectives in the detective branch. That position is recognized in G. L. c. 22, Section 9P. No statute explicitly authorizes appointments of officers to that rank by the commissioner; his authority is implicit, however, in G. L. c. 22, Section 6, which provides in part that "[t]he commissioner may appoint, transfer and remove officers, inspectors, experts, clerks and other assistants." In any event, both parties agree that the commissioner has the authority to establish criteria for promotion to the position of captain of detectives and to make appointments to that position. The notice of the examination stated that the promotion would be based on four factors which were assigned certain weights. They were: (1) written examination, 55 per cent; (2) performance evaluation, 15 percent; (3) oral interview, 15 percent; and (4) seniority, 15 percent. In regard to the last factor, the notice stated that "seniority will be based on years of service in grade as a detective lieutenant . . . , not to exceed a maximum of 20 years." The plaintiff, along with other detective lieutenants, took the examination. He received 1,670.85 of a possible 2,000 points, broken down as follows: 990 of 1,100 possible points on the written examination, 299 of 300 points on job performance, 290.6 of 300 points on the oral interview, and 91.25 of 300 possible points for seniority. The reason the plaintiff received a low mark on the seniority factor was that he was not given any credit by the commissioner for the time that he claimed he had spent performing the same functions as a detective lieutenant while a member of the uniformed branch. With his final score of 83.542 per cent, the plaintiff ranked sixth on the promotional list. If he had been given credit for the time he had spent performing the same functions of a detective lieutenant while not holding that rank, he would have been second on the list.”

  “The plaintiff appealed from his seniority mark to a board appointed by the commissioner to hear appeals concerning the examination. His appeal was denied, and the plaintiff then filed the instant complaint in Superior Court. He claimed, essentially, that the commissioner's definition of seniority as years of service in grade as a detective lieutenant was arbitrary and capricious, and he asked that a declaration issue stating that the plaintiff is "entitled to seniority credit for the years he spent performing the work of a detective lieutenant and [that] the [commissioner] be ordered to readjust plaintiff's seniority credit accordingly." At the trial, the facts were not disputed. The plaintiff was appointed to the uniformed branch in 1968. Members of that branch patrol the highways. In addition, that branch has within it several units whose functions are to investigate crime. After the plaintiff graduated from the State police academy, he was assigned to road patrol duty. In 1972, he was assigned to the criminal intelligence bureau, one of those units within the uniformed branch whose function was to investigate major crimes. Later he was assigned to other units and details within the uniformed branch. From 1972 to 1981, he performed the same functions as a detective lieutenant inspector in the detective branch in that he "investigate[d] major crimes and criminal activities, effect[d] the detection and arrest of criminals, collect[ed] evidence and assist[ed] in the preparation and prosecution of cases in court, and perform[ed] related work as required" (see note 1, supra). He performed those functions while a member of the uniformed branch and was not assigned or transferred, temporarily or otherwise, during the relevant period to the detective branch. Other members of the uniformed branch during the years 1972 to 1981 performed similar functions to those performed by the plaintiff. In 1981, the plaintiff was promoted to the rank of detective lieutenant inspector in the detective branch, having passed an examination for that position.”

  “In finding for the plaintiff, the judge ruled that the commissioner's action in limiting seniority to "years of service in grade as a detective lieutenant" was arbitrary and capricious. He ordered that the plaintiff be given seniority credit for the years (1972-1981) that he had spent performing the duties of a detective lieutenant when he did not hold that rank, and that the plaintiff's position on the promotional list be adjusted accordingly. He also ordered that the commissioner be restrained from making any promotions from the list until further order of the court. On appeal, the commissioner challenges the judge's ruling that his action in defining seniority was arbitrary and capricious. "Arbitrary and capricious action on the part of an executive officer is willful and unreasoning action without consideration and in disregard of facts and circumstances." Thomson v. Wyoming In-Stream Flow Committee, 651 P.2d 778, 791 (Wyo. 1982). Cella, Administrative Law and Practice Section 1574 (1986). In reviewing the action of an administrator, the court "must apply all rational presumptions in favor of the validity of the administrative action and not declare it void unless its provisions cannot by any reasonable construction be interpreted in harmony with the legislative mandate." Purity Supreme, Inc. v. Attorney Gen., 380 Mass. 762 , 776 (1980), quoting from Consolidated Cigar Corp. v. Department of Pub. Health, 372 Mass. 844 , 855 (1977). On this record, we cannot say that the commissioner's action was arbitrary and capricious. We observe that the Legislature has not specified that seniority is a necessary qualification for promotion to the higher grades in the State police. See G. L. c. 22, Section 9P. Nothing in the appropriate statutes suggests in any way that particular types of experience in the uniformed branch would be relevant to promotions in the detective branch. The commissioner could reasonably conclude that seniority specifically in the detective branch is indicative of an applicant's qualifications for higher rank in that branch, and seniority or functionally equivalent experiences in the uniformed branch are not.”

  “While time in grade may not be a perfect test of qualifications, even in conjunction with other tests, it is a rational standard. The measurement of experience performing a function such as criminal investigation is more subjective, and more likely to cause controversy, than either time in service or time in grade. Finally, it is undisputed that the candidates for the position of detective captain included both persons appointed under G. L. c. 22, Section 6, who had entered the detective branch from outside police departments, and an appointee under G. L. c. 22, Section 9A (the plaintiff), who had entered from the uniformed branch. The commissioner could reasonably conclude that it would be unfair to those Section 6 candidates to count the plaintiff's experience in the uniformed branch and not their prior experience in other police departments. [Note 2] The judgment is reversed, and a new judgment is to be entered declaring that the plaintiff is not entitled to additional seniority credit for experience prior to his becoming a detective lieutenant inspector. So ordered.”

  • TL;DR — Robert Long didn’t make Captain, and was embittered because he expected seniority to be the deciding factor—not merit, because he’s old-school—so he sued his bosses, and the judge said “Look, you didn’t get the gig. Deal with it,” and he resigned from the State Police out of spite early the next year. And now he’s self-employed as a P.I. and talks big game about what he claims he used to be.

William O’Connell

BILL O’CONNELL

• Bill O’Connell developed much of Cape Cod and orchestrated the recent South Boston redevelopment boom. This area of Southie was formerly the territory of Whitey Bulger/Winter Hill Gang. Bob Long was among those that took-down Whitey Bulger, clearing the old waterfront borough for his friend BOC to then buy-up for cheap.

• 14 CEOs unite to make business heard; A new ‘Vault’ presses for jobs — By Steven Syre, Globe Staff — February 28, 2010

  A group of chief executives from some of the biggest companies in Massachusetts has been meeting privately with state political leaders on ways to spur job development, a coordinated high-level business effort reminiscent of Boston’s Vault organization that weighed in on public affairs decades ago.

  The executives, 14 in all, have formed the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership. They include Raytheon Co. CEO William Swanson, Liberty Mutual’s Edmund Kelly, and Staples Inc. boss Ronald L. Sargent. The group has hired Dan O’Connell, the former state secretary of housing and economic development under Governor Deval Patrick, as its president.

  • Sec’y of Housing and Econ. Dev.: O’Connell; Sec’y of Eng. & Env: Bowles — December 15, 2006 — Dan O’Connell (Any relation? It’s a common surname in Boston, but just wondering.)

    BOSTON – Friday, December 15, 2006-In a first glimpse at the cabinet reorganization the new administration will undertake, Governor-elect Deval Patrick today announced his selection of Ian Bowles as Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs and Dan O’Connell as Secretary of Housing and Economic Development.  These appointments mark the second and third cabinet announcements of the Patrick-Murray administration, and reflect the Governor-elect’s intention to align cabinet functions with his vision of how best to move the Commonwealth forward. // “Energy and housing are critical elements for our future success and prosperity, and they are linked to other policies,” said the Governor-elect.  “Both Dan and Ian understand that.  I am honored and delighted to have them join our team.”// “Energy independence is going to be a top focus in the coming years, and we need coordination to achieve smarter energy outcomes and protect our environment,” said Patrick.  “Similarly, we need close coordination between housing and economic policy because so many workers are unable to afford to live in Massachusetts.” // Governor-elect Patrick will release further details of the cabinet reorganization at a later date.

    O’Connell is an attorney and real estate developer with extensive management experience. He has worked in federal, quasi-public, and private institutions in Boston and Washington, DC.  Since 2005, he has served as an Executive Vice President, Partner, and senior member of the Meredith & Grew’s Development and Advisory Services Group. // Before joining the firm, O’Connell served as Principal in the Development Services Group at Spaulding & Slye Colliers, providing strategic counsel and execution capabilities to governmental, institutional, and corporate clients. He was in charge of several large-scale development projects, including Fan Pier, Boston; North Point, Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville; and the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority. // O’Connell has also served in the public sector as former Executive Director of the Massachusetts Industrial Finance Agency, now MassDevelopment, and as Director of Planning and Development for the Massachusetts Port Authority, where he was responsible for the completion of the 10-acre Piers Park on Boston Harbor. He also served as chief of staff to Congressman Ed Markey.

    “I’m excited and energized to be part of Governor Patrick’s team,” O’Connell said. “I look forward to integrating housing opportunities with economic development and job creation, which Governor Patrick has identified as key priorities in his administration. It is our hope that an increased focus on housing will help the Commonwealth retain and attract the best and brightest we have to offer.” // O’Connell serves as Co-Chairman of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Real Estate Development Committee, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Legislative Commission on Metropolitan Beaches, and on the Board of Directors for the Island Alliance, Boston Harbor Islands National Park. He holds an A.B from Harvard College and a law degree from Harvard Law School. // O’Connell lives in Boston with his wife Marilyn. He has three daughters, Brynn, Allison, and Caitlin.

  • Dan O’Connell quits Deval Patrick cabinet - January 31, 2009 

    State Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Dan O’Connell has resigned after two years and will be replaced by Greg Bialecki, undersecretary of business development. // The reason for O’Connell’s departure was not divulged in the announcement by Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday. Kofi Jones, O’Connell’s spokeswoman, said he has no new job lined up. // “He’s just taking a pause from his professional life to travel for a few months with his wife, and he’ll make decisions about his next professional endeavor when he returns,” Jones said. // Shocked staff members were informed of O’Connell’s departure at 10 a.m. yesterday, according to an Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development employee. Many had noticed strains between Patrick’s executive office and O’Connell, who sources say only answered to the governor himself. // “There’s been speculation in this office for six months (that he’s leaving),” a staffer said. “There has been tons of friction between he and the governor’s staff.”

  • Replaced by: Gov. Patrick's economic chief prepares to say goodbye to job he's had for six years - Greg Bialecki will soon say goodbye to his magnificent views from his 21st floor office, in a tower atop Beacon Hill.

  • Bialecki’s replacement, Jay Ash, resigns Dec 18, 2018: Ash steps down as Baker’s economic development chief — Jay Ash, the Baker administration’s economic development chief, is stepping down from the position after nearly four years, with the governor naming one of Ash’s lieutenants as his replacement. // Mike Kennealy will take over for Ash as secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, the administration said on Tuesday. Kennealy had previously been assistant secretary for business growth, serving as a liaison between Baker and large employers. // Ash said in an email to the Business Journal that he had not yet decided what he will do next.

    • Oh really? “No idea” what he’d do next? He had a new CEO position two days later, with the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, “a group made up of the top executives at some of the state’s most powerful companies.” (So he’s the CEO of a group of CEOs? What even is that? What does he do? Lemme guess, he uses old State House connections to get certain bills passed, contracts expedited, and fees bypassed? On behalf of his money-hungry, fat-handed, short-dicked sub-CEOs? And these sub-CEOs reward him with whatever obscene salary he likely makes.) And he definitely planned to take this position, based on having held the title of his state role, instead of actually doing his job in that state role when he was there: As expected, top Baker aide Jay Ash lands job as CEO of powerful business group (Boston Globe, Dec 20, 2018) // Massachusetts Competitive Partnership Names Jay Ash CEO (a big-enough deal to make it onto the AP wire)

  • Dan O’Connell headed the Vault until Jan. 12, 2017: The ‘New Vault’ looks for a new chief (Boston Globe, 01/11/17)

  • Powerful business group keeps low profile in Boston (Boston Globe, 01/11/16)

    They meet in secret several times a year, in a nondescript conference room 13 stories above the din of Boylston Street.

    The cost of a seat at the table? $100,000 annually.

    But the steep membership fee isn’t what makes this club so exclusive. To join, you also need to run — or have run — one of the biggest companies in the state.

    • (Members incl. Suffolk Construction chief executive John Fish, Vertex Pharmaceuticals CEO Jeffrey Leiden, and former Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson.)

• (Syre cont.) ^^ “We believe there’s been a dilution in the business voice in the Commonwealth,’’ said the group’s chairman and cofounder, John Fish, chief executive of Suffolk Construction Co. in Boston. “We believe the business community can add tremendous value to government. When it comes to creating jobs, we can offer a healthy perspective.’’

  The group may have already had an impact. Fish said its members advocated for some of the measures included in two different job-creation proposals filed recently on Beacon Hill, one by the governor and the other by Senate president Therese Murray. In particular, the executives pushed for consolidating the number of state agencies that work with businesses and for the creation of local “growth districts,’’ which would receive money for infrastructure development because the state and community share a long-term strategic plan for growth.

  “At this point, we’re at the big picture’’ level, said House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who along with other political leaders met with Partnership members last summer. “I’m looking at this as a working group that we can sit down with and say, ‘This is the issue. Can we get from point A to point B, and how can we make this happen?’ ’’

  While Fish said the Partnership is not a reprise of the Vault, there are similarities. Formally known as the Coordinating Committee, the Vault consisted of 25 business leaders from downtown Boston who operated secretively and wielded great influence over public affairs through its policy positions and behind-the-scenes advocacy. After John Collins was elected Boston mayor in 1960, the Vault persuaded him to hire urban planner Ed Logue, who ushered in the modern building era in the city’s downtown.

  So named because its members met in the basement vault of the Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co., the Vault diminished in power over the years and disbanded in 1997.

  “The Vault wanted to rescue the city from its deteriorating future and, despite its undemocratic nature, it did a lot of good for Boston,’’ said Jeffrey Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University. In contrast, the new Partnership, he said, “could be described as Goodwill Hunting. There’s an effort to improve the business-government relationship.’

  Unlike the Vault, Fish said that the Partnership is interested in economic development across Massachusetts and that, despite members coming from large corporations, it believes job growth will be driven mostly by small and midsize businesses. And though the member companies are based in Boston or its suburbs, the group is particularly interested in pushing business opportunities further out in the state in cities with lower costs, such as Springfield, New Bedford, and Fall River.

  Also, while the Vault got involved in civic matters in Boston, the Partnership has no such plan. “There is a laser focus on job creation and competitiveness in the economy,’’ said O’Connell. “We have discussed the cost of doing business in the Commonwealth. But we’re cognizant of the fact it’s a very tough time. The resources of government are stretched.’’

  The Partnership began nearly two years ago with three founders - Fish, retired Bank of America Corp. chairman Charles Gifford, and Swanson - and expanded recently to include the leaders of other elite Massachusetts companies: Joseph Tucci of EMC Corp., Ronald Logue of State Street Corp., Thomas May of NStar, Dr. Gary Gottlieb of Partners HealthCare Inc., Laura J. Sen of BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc., Robert Reynolds of Putnam Investments, and John DesPrez III of John Hancock Financial Services.

  It also includes New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Jack Connors, the retired advertising executive who is chairman at Partners. O’Connell was brought on board three weeks ago.

  “It started out as a round table where people talked about issues and their experiences,’’ said May, the NStar chief executive. “It started loose and it’s been tightening. We’re trying to be more structured and focus on specific topics.’’

  The executives have been meeting every other month. They also chat informally about economic issues by phone, Fish said.

  The Partnership’s political role began to gel last summer when Patrick, Murray, DeLeo and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino met with its members in a conference room at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to discuss economic matters generally.

  There is no shortage of business organizations that already lobby government officials. Though Fish said the Partnership’s economic mission is broader than individual trade association positions, many of the group’s policy interests sound similar.

  “How much different is it from the chamber of commerce or the Associated Industries of Massachusetts,’’ which represents industrial companies, “and how much more juice do’’ businesses need? said Robert Haynes, president of the union organization, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. “But I wish them well if they’re interested in moving the economy. I’m interested in jobs, like them.’’

  Fish said the Partnership is now reaching out to universities and private consulting firms for help measuring the effectiveness of job-creating initiatives.

  “This is a group of CEOs who measure success in their businesses and have challenged government to measure,’’ Fish said. “If things aren’t working, let’s get them out of the way. And if they are, let’s support them.’’

• BOC’s Keys to the Kingdom…

  • How Southie Has Changed Since Bulger's Days — July 18, 2013 — Curt Nickisch

    When the FBI brought reputed mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger back to his old stomping grounds of South Boston to be tried in federal court after 16 years on the lam, he must have done a double take. In some ways, the neighborhood that Bulger is accused of terrorizing with murders and extortion has gone to heaven.

    The other day, on L Street in the heart of South Boston’s residential district, a busload of tourists unloaded into L Street Tavern. Bartender Ron Rumble pointed out where a bar scene from the movie "Good Will Hunting" was filmed, and another one, too.

    "Ben Affleck and all his buddies bought a real cheap old car," Rumble said, jogging the memories of the tourists in T-shirts and shorts in front of him. "The car was actually right outside here.

    "Good Will Hunting" told the story of an abused kid who escaped Southie. Other stops on this Boston movie tour show scenes from "Mystic River," "The Town" and "The Departed." Guide Elizabeth Rouse said the gritty Irish neighborhood depicted in those movies almost feels likes Hollywood fiction now.

    "Even when I was little, and I'm not that old," the 28-year-old said. "It was a much different place."

    When Rouse was little, her South Boston family spoke about Bulger in hushed tones and warned her to walk quickly past where he was known to hang out.

    Today, however, she’s bringing busloads of tourists to some of the same places. South Boston has become such a desirable neighborhood, Rouse can’t afford to live here anymore.

    How do you like them apples?

    Over on South Boston's Broadway, Matt Thayer opened a boutique food store called American Provisions.

    "I sell $30-a-pound cheese," Thayer said, laughing.

    He had noticed how affluent newcomers were doing their shopping outside the neighborhood. Even so, Thayer said he’s made a big effort to become accepted by the entire community, donating to Little League teams and reaching out to anyone who comes in the door.

    "Fifty years ago, you’d go to a bakery, you buy fresh bread, and that money’s staying in Southie," Thayer said. "So that’s how we try to tell it anyway. I’m sure we’re still the 'yuppie shop' around the corner, though, but it is what it is."

    Two doors down is another shop that caters to newcomers to Southie — canine ones.

    The pet store BYOD popped up to let residents wash sand off their dogs after walking on the beach. The waterfront and proximity to downtown office buildings have made the neighborhood especially popular with workers who haven’t started families yet, but who have pets. Dogs now outnumber schoolchildren here more than two to one. Just 30 kids signed up for Pop Warner football in the spring.

    Longtime residents are feeling outnumbered.

    At a recent neighborhood meeting, some of them listened to an architect talk about renovating the historic Collins mansion on Broadway into condominiums. Neighbor Billy Evans, a police officer, was not happy with the plan.

    "No, it’s so crowded now. It’s over-condensed," Evans said. "There’s no parking. To try to squeeze 11 units into the neighborhood, it just doesn't fit. This belongs out in Andover or something like that. This is just a money grab, is all this is. Get as many units as you can, and don’t worry about the impact in the neighborhood."

    Another resident, J.J. Cee, said the nouveau riche are forcing him out.

    "Oh, I’ll say hello to them, if they’re going to be neighbors," Cee said matter-of-factly. "But I won’t be here that long, because I won’t be able to afford the real estate tax. That’s how they’re getting us out. That’s why I’m calling it economic apartheid."

    Cee has a name for the Boston Redevelopment Authority; he calls it the South Boston Destruction Authority. This week, the city development agency approved a different project with more than 400 apartments for the waterfront closer to downtown. That’s the Seaport area the city is aggressively branding as the Innovation District. It’s booming with pricey seafood restaurants, a new corporate headquarters for the pharmaceutical firm Vertex and the world’s largest global startup accelerator, MassChallenge.

    "It’s amazing not only what’s happened in this area of Boston, but what’s going to happen," said Adam Ziegler, founder of the startup Mootus, which is kind of a Wikipedia for lawyers. From his 14th floor office space that he shares with more than 100 other startups, he looks right out on the Moakley courthouse, where Bulger is being tried for racketeering.

    Ziegler called it amazing "to see what’s happening with all this real estate, that’s really being put to its maximum beneficial use, as opposed to just sitting unoccupied or, worse, used for nefarious criminal activities."

    So, how much of South Boston’s boom is thanks to Bulger being out of the picture? Did the alleged organized racketeer prevent economic development by scaring away legitimate business for all those years? From the looks of the rapid transformation over the time Bulger was a fugitive, it’s almost as if a big economic weight had been lifted — a stiff tax repealed.

    Let’s call it the "Whitey Tax" on South Boston.

    But Suffolk University historian and South Boston resident Robert Allison is having none of this hypothesis.

    "It’s a figment of you journalists’ imagination," he said.

    Allison said a lot of other things happened over the same time period — above all, the Big Dig. The infrastructure project made South Boston and its beaches and good housing stock much more accessible, right when the housing boom took off. Meanwhile, building the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center catalyzed the commercial sector. Allison said South Boston's growth is the result of a development strategy that’s performing — for now.

    "It’s a healthy thing to have young people with new ideas moving up," Allison said. "But then if they move out, in the long run can you count on the fact in 10 years, 15 years, that another group of enthusiastic energetic young people moving in or having new ideas? That’s a long-term problem for the city."

    Even so, it’s hard to imagine many of the same people moving in, and many of the new businesses opening up, if Bulger were still operating on Southie’s streets.

    For one, Lonnie Newburn wouldn’t be here. He and a couple of partners have opened GrandTen Distillery, right next to Peter Welch’s Gym. Newburn said if he had to stress about extortion, too, he definitely wouldn’t be opening a distillery in Southie.

    "That’s been a trial in itself," he said, bottling a batch of limited-edition gin. "There’s been a lot of struggles, a lot of hoops we’ve had to go through."

    Moreover, Newburn said few customers would have ventured down for tastings in the old days in this neighborhood. The distillery opened just down the street from a Southie dive bar remembered for a scuffle that turned deadly. But Aces High closed earlier this year.

    Back at the L Street Tavern, bartender Rumble washed out a beer glass, reflecting on the old South Boston.

    "The past is the past and we got by that," he said, shaking his head.

    Rumble says whatever caused it, the neighborhood’s rapid economic transformation may have brought fresh tensions. But Rumble said he’ll take the South Boston of today and tomorrow over "Whitey’s" Southie any day.

  • Southie Leads Boston’s Development Boom — Scott Van Voorhis, February 2, 2015

    Sure, Back Bay and Downtown Crossing may have all the new towers, but when it comes to overall development activity, South Boston is arguably the epicenter of the city’s development boom. Southie currently has 42 projects either in the planning or approval stage, under construction, or recently opened. Most feature or include new apartment rentals, townhomes, or condos, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s map of the Hub’s development scene.

    The developments range from converted churches to brand spanking new buildings. The luxury West Square development at 320 D Street, which is still under construction, includes 259 apartments and 143 parking spaces. If you throw in another 22 projects happening in the South Boston Waterfront, including the multibillion-dollar Seaport Square development, the number rises to 64 – three times or more than any other city neighborhood.

    Not that super hot neighborhoods like the Back Bay (11 projects) and South End (19 projects), are any slouches either. Back Bay and neighboring Downtown include plans for the three poshest and tallest towers even built in Boston: one still in the planning in Copley Square, and construction underway at the 61-story Four Seasons Tower and the 60-story Millennium Tower. “There has been a big shift in our city,’’ said Tracy Campion of Campion & Co., the brokerage in charge of the building’s sales. “Back Bay and Beacon Hill are bursting out of their seams.’’ Other neighborhoods are also seeing a big surge in development. East Boston may now be one of the hottest new neighborhoods in terms of big projects outside of South Boston.

    A trio of grand waterfront developments is in the works for the neighborhood’s once hardscrabble waterfront, including 400 new apartments and condos at Clippership Wharf. Charlestown’s real estate market heated up a couple decades ago, much like Eastie’s is doing now. The Charlestown boom continues, with plans for 85 new residential units and public space on the first floor at Pier 5.Fenway is another neighborhood in the middle of a dramatic transformation, from a gritty student alcove to one of the more exciting places to live in the city. With building sites scarce in the densely packed neighborhood, developers are pushing to span the Massachusetts Turnpike with ambitious air-rights projects.

    Developer John Rosenthal is lining up financing for Fenway Center, a $550 million apartment and retail project proposed for an air-rights platform over the Massachusetts Turnpike by Fenway. Plans for Parcel 7 air-rights include a seven-story residential building and a 22-story residential and office tower. Near the Hynes Convention Center and the Berklee College of Music, New York-based Peebles Corp. is pushing plans for a $330 million air-rights project at Parcel 13, including 88 condos, a hotel and shops.

    Often overlooked, Dorchester now has 20 major projects in the works, including a proposal for for 275 residential units and 143 parking spaces at 25 Morrissey Boulevard by the JFK/UMass T station, while St. Kevin’s redevelopment, now underway, features 80 affordable units. Brighton has 21, including 1505 Commonwealth Ave., a proposal to convert an office building into 85 residential units. Allston’s 15 projects include a new proposal for 87 apartments, ground floor retail, and 66 parking spaces at 37-43 North Beacon Street.

    Meanwhile, Roxbury has 20 big projects in the pipeline, a number that includes 102 residential units in two buildings in the first phase of Bartlett Place, along with 16,839 square feet of commercial space and a garage with 130 spaces. When the build out is complete, the entire development will have 323 residences. Last but not least, Jamaica Plain has 16 new projects, including The Commons at Forest Hills Station, which calls for 283 new residential units at the former Hughes Oil site. Demolition work began last fall.

  • https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/08/17/here-s-what-developers-are-planning-for-southie-s.html // https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2017/04/25/here-s-the-first-glimpse-at-the-future-of-southie.html 

  • http://www.bostonplans.org/neighborhoods/south-boston/at-a-glance // http://www.bostonplans.org/neighborhoods/south-boston/south-boston-contacts // http://www.bostonplans.org/projects/development-projects?neighborhoodid=17&sortby=name&sortdirection=ASC // http://www.bostonplans.org/work-with-us/bpda-owned-land?neighborhoodid=17&sortby=name&sortdirection=asc&type=bold // http://www.bostonplans.org/planning/planning-initiatives?neighborhoodid=17&sortby=name&sortdirection=ASC 

• LISA KENNEY worked at Verizon as a mgr for complaints corruption and reported BOC to Head of Security @ Verizon (who, it turns out, was Bob Long) and Long said “it’s fine” so she reported him (Long) to the CEO and the reply she received was “stop looking into this.” (But is “complaints corruption” a real thing at Verizon? And why would she have been reporting BOC to them? Did he work there? Or did Verizon have an investigative squad that used the Patriot Act as an excuse to spy on private individuals to determine if people were corrupt? Or was it a phone hotline for people calling their cellular service provider to report crimes that the police weren’t investigating? So many questions…)

  • https://www.verizon.com/about/careers/locations/waltham-ma << was it here? WALTHAM office? Not HQ.

  • Because the current HEAD OF SECURITY is in NYC HQ and not him https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mason-8ab14724 and replaced somebody else entirely https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2007/09/12/verizon-taps-fbi-official-as-security-chief.aspx 

• BOC (the developer) was based out of Quincy, MA; he was arrested for rape and 19g of cocaine. The 14-year-old he raped was Rebecca Rezendez, killed in Malden in 2012 WHILE RETURNING FROM A SAFEHOUSE, OUT OF THE STATE, TO TESTIFY IN HIS TRIAL. – The case for her alleged murder was then turned over to Gatcomb, the state investigator; Gatcomb supposedly turned it over to State Police, which meant it went to the corrupt MST aforementioned. (Gatcomb’s son had once shot a firefighter and miraculously got off scot-free.) — Also, BOC is a patron of a child escort ring—see Jeffrey Epstein. Furthermore, his friend once “fell out” of BOC’s boat and was “accidentally” chopped-up by the boat propeller. No charges were filed and it was not investigated.

  • Note: I no longer need to scream quietly in the corner about Jeffrey Epstein’s secret child-rape island for the rich and powerful—because someone “important” finally believed the “tall tales” about him. I do, however, now scream quietly about whoever is responsible for Epstein’s “suicide”, and that issue is not as easy to rave about cos the truth is not as obvious as is, say, an entire island that appears in maps and flight records and letters and harrowing recollections.

  • Prominent South Shore Developer Charged With Child Rape, Trafficking Cocaine — By Bill Shields, WBZ-TV

    QUINCY (CBS) — One of the South Shore’s most prominent businessmen is out on bail after being charged with drug trafficking and rape of a child under the age of 16.

    Seventy-one-year-old Bill O’Connell was released Monday after putting up $150,000 cash.

    O’Connell is the developer of the hugely successful Marina Bay, a complex of upscale condos and shops on the water.  He was also instrumental in transforming the old Quincy quarries into the exclusive Granite Links Golf Club.

    • https://www.granitelinks.com/about (formerly https://www.granitelinksgolfclub.com/club/scripts/library/view_document.asp?NS=PUBLIC&DN=HISTORY) — Original conceit in 1989; in 1997, “The Fill… Quarry Hills Associates was selected to remove excavated fill and soils from Boston's Big Dig project. Over the next six years, 13 million tons would be received at the project site.” — Quarry Hills Associates is BOC’s family operation.

    • wiki/Marina_Bay_(Quincy,_Massachusetts) — Marina Bay is situated on the former site of the Victory Destroyer Plant and Naval Air Station Squantum, a naval airfield that was closed in 1954.[4] The surplus base was sold at auction in 1956 by the U.S. Government's General Services Administration to the Boston Edison company, the major electric utility in eastern Massachusetts at the time.[5][6] Although other uses were discussed, it was generally assumed that Boston Edison would use the 600-acre (2.4 km2) site to build an electricity generation facility, with the construction of a nuclear power plant included in the speculation.

      • Full text of "Juvenile delinquency; utilization of surplus military installations for boys town type projects. Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-fourth Congress, second session, pursuant to S. Res. 62 and S. Res. 173, Eighty-fourth Congress, investigation of juvenile delinquency in the United States. July 10 and 11, 1956"

        The Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee has been holding hearings throughout the Nation on the various aspects of causation, prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of delinquent youth. We have looked at a number of communities and the problems they have had in this area. On other occasions we have studied various factors — pornography for example — which existed in all parts of the United States which we felt to be detrimental to young people. 

        The hearing today will concern itself with the prevention and rehabilitation area on a local and national level. This hearing was requested by Boys Town of Massachusetts, Inc., for the purpose of reviewing their effort to obtain a portion of the deactivated naval air station at Squantum, Mass., for a citizenship training program for 3'outh from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 

        Viewing this morning's hearing over and above its purely local aspects, however, the matter is of utmost importance in the Nation's fight against delinquency. We will be reaching critical times in the next decade in our efforts to control delinquency. Even if we succeed in keeping the delinquency rate at the level it is today, the tremendous increase in the teen-age population in the next 4 or 5 years will pose a grave problem to our already overburdened institutions handling delinquent youth. 

        Thus, a partial solution to the problem may be found in the broader aspects of the hearing which will be concerned with the feasibility of a new national program of combating the ever increasing juvenile delinquency problem by utilizing as many as 30 former Government military installations for Boys Town type projects serving thousands of pre delinquent and delinquent youth. 

        • OH THE IRONY — FROM BOYS TOWN TO BILL O’CONNELL!!!

        Some of my first experience with a Boys Town type of institution was when I took boys, who were failing in foster-home placements, to the Connecticut Junior Republic, at that time under the directorship of Harold R. Strong. Later, we felt that we had learned to "spot" the individuals who would respond better to group pressures and we utilized such placements, immediately, even though limited in the number of boys we could serve because we had to go far away as the Connecticut and George Junior Republics, Children's Village, Berkshire Industrial Farm, and Father Flanagan's Nebraska Boys Town, as well as several other smaller group situations. 

        When an opportunity came, in 1948, to teach in one of these schools and I was granted a 10-year teacher's certificate by the New York State Board of Education, I welcomed the chance to get the inside experience which merely placing boys in institutions had not provided. 

      • Boston Harbor Marina Inc., later Marina Industries Inc., became interested in development of the land as a mixed-used complex in the 1980s[9] and a group driven by Quincy developers William and Peter O'Connell was able to gain support and finally approval from the city of Quincy for the project in 1985.[10] Construction proceeded in phases for several years until the recession of the early 1990s brought it to a halt[11] and eventually forced the O'Connells to declare bankruptcy.[12] Development continued under other management with the involvement of the O'Connells after foreclosure.

      • Marina Bay is a mixed-use development neighborhood of condominium, commercial and entertainment facilities in Quincy, Massachusetts. It includes five housing complexes (including detached, townhouse and low-rise apartment units) and one assisted living complex, office complexes, numerous restaurants, a 685-slip marina and a seaside boardwalk.[1][2] It is situated on the northwestern part of Squantum Peninsula at the mouth of the Neponset River where it meets Dorchester Bay in Boston Harbor.

      • Yudis, Anthony J. (November 5, 1983). "Big Plans for the old Squantum Air Base / Condominium community to grow on Quincy shore". The Boston Globe.

      • Pearson, Carol (January 17, 1985). "Rezoning request for Squantum advances". The Boston Globe. p. 22.

      • McGrory, Brian (August 19, 1990). "Scale-Down Deflates Massive Marina Bay Project". The Boston Globe.

      • Ackerman, Jerry (July 7, 1992). "Quincy project placed in Chapter 11". The Boston Globe.

      • Crowley, Elizabeth W. (November 27, 2002). "Marina Bay building plan rejected by state". The Patriot Ledger.

      • Boston elites gather at Marina Bay like it’s the new Newport…

        • Tenet contract squabbles: BOC made offer to Carlyle, Carlyle stalled, so BOC went towards Kemper, but Carlyle heard about it and interrupted to assure intent on signing, so BOC dropped offer to Kemper and received intent from Carlyle, but Carlyle signed lease elsewhere, so BOC lost Kemper for no reason and filed against Carlyle for breaching their agreement. 

  • (Shields cont.) ^^ But prosecutors say O’Connell traded cocaine for sex with a minor on several occasions, going back almost two years.

    District Attorney Michael Morrissey appointed a Special Prosecutor to the case likely because Morrissey has known O’Connell for years, first when Morrissey was a State Representative, then Senator from Quincy.

    “I can’t speak for the District Attorney”, said Special Prosecutor Andrew Berman, “but it’s likely he didn’t want a conflict of interest.”

    • Wealthy Quincy developer William O’Connell charged with child rape, cocaine trafficking — Jack Encarnacao, May 9, 2011

      One of Quincy’s wealthiest and most influential developers was arraigned Monday on child rape and drug trafficking charges.

      William S. O’Connell, 71, whose developments include the ritzy Marina Bay complex and Granite Links Golf Club, could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 13 years in prison if convicted. The charges stem from a March 31 raid on his condominium in the Marina Bay section of Quincy.

      O’Connell was charged with two counts of aggravated rape of a child under 16, two counts of sexual conduct for a fee and cocaine trafficking

      Bail was set at $150,000. He was handcuffed in court after entering innocent pleas and was posting bail within five minutes of arraignment. He was ordered to have no unsupervised contact with any child under 16. He must submit to random drug tests and remain in Massachusetts. He surrendered his passport.

      Andrew DiCarlo Berman, a special prosecutor from Boston has been assigned to the case by Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey.

      A criminal complaint on the charges was issued Friday out of Quincy District Court, as was a warrant for O’Connell’s arrest. He was not arrested, but is expected to appear for arraignment Monday afternoon.

      State Police executed a search warrant at O’Connell’s Marina Drive condominium on March 31. DiCarlo Berman said the documents relating to that search were impounded by a judge at his request to prevent the underage victim in the case from being identified.

      The rape charges against O’Connell indicate the victim is between 14 and 16 years of age. If the victim was younger than 14, a different section of the sexual conduct for a fee statute would apply.

      DiCarlo Berman said approximately 19 grams of cocaine were found in O’Connell’s condominium. Under state law, possession of more than 14 grams of cocaine is considered trafficking.

      If convicted, O’Connell faces a 10-year minimum mandatory prison sentence on the rape charge and a minimum three years in prison on the trafficking charge.

      In 2003, O’Connell was sentenced to six months of probation after being charged with negligent homicide while operating a motorboat. O’Connell’s best friend, William Sanderson, 62, of Quincy, was killed on July 4, 2002 when he was struck by the propellers of a boat that O’Connell was piloting.

      O’Connell was initially charged with drunken boating but that charge was dismissed. The accident happened on the shore of Chappaquiddick Island on Martha’s Vineyard where O’Connell owns a home.

    • wickedlocal.com/story/courier-sentinel/2020/12/22/notos-group-founder-addresses-social-media-post-relatives-past/4016439001/

  • Fast Times at Marina Bay? — by ALYSSA GIACOBBE — 9/27/2011

    • The O'Connell family rose from nothing to become one of the state's most powerful developers, putting up mega-projects like Marina Bay in Quincy and the Seaport World Trade Center. But with one family member charged in the shooting of an off-duty firefighter and another accused of drug trafficking and repeatedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl, their protected world of wealth and privilege has begun to crumble.  

      The 14-year-old girl told police she visited the rich old man once a week. They had sex, and he gave her money. The man’s lawyer says the girl is telling malicious lies and no sex occurred: “To help somebody is not a crime.”

    He was drawn to flash, and a little bit of danger, perhaps not so uncharacteristic for a man who made a living in luxury real estate. There was the boat, a sleek 47-foot cigarette model, the sports cars, including a Ferrari and a Jaguar, the private helicopter. He told the girl he’d fly her to Martha’s Vineyard in that helicopter. He said he had to be very careful with her because she was so young.

    They first met in the summer of 2009. He was somewhere around 70. She was 14. She went to his condo, she later told police, on something of a pretense, invited by a girl she knew simply as Kookie.

    “You just have to watch,” said Kookie, a 19-year-old aspiring nanny who said she planned to have sex with the man. He was rich, one of the richest in Quincy, and he would give them money.

    And so, as the girl would later tell police while laying out her version of events, she and Kookie took a cab to his condo in Marina Bay, the kind of luxury development that attracted athletes and high rollers, and judging from the place — a sprawling duplex with a Jacuzzi in the bedroom, mirrors that covered the walls and ceiling, and a skyline view of Boston — the man fit right in. The girl stood at the corner of the bed as Kookie and the man removed their clothes and put them on the floor. On the television, the girl could hear newscasters prattling on about earthquakes in California. Watching the two of them have sex, as she had been instructed to do, was awkward. At some point, the girl later told police, he called her over. He wanted her to have sex with Kookie while he watched. He also wanted to have sex with her.

    She was scared — mostly, she later told police, because this was not the plan she and Kookie had discussed, but also because he was so old. “It’s okay,” he told her. He didn’t force her. She didn’t say no. According to police, Kookie held her hand, the older girl giving the younger a look as if to say, “It will all be over soon.” And it was. He ejaculated on her shirt, which she later threw away. Then he put on his pants, walked to the bathroom, and returned with $200 in cash for each of them.

    According to a police affidavit based on an interview with the girl, she went back to 1001 Marina Drive about once a week after that — sometimes more, sometimes less, but never with Kookie. The man never used a condom. Each time, he would give her money from a black wallet — anywhere from $70 to $230. He never talked about why he was giving her the money — “that’s just how it always was,” she told police — and no matter how much he gave her, she would not complain, even if she was disappointed.

    The man’s lawyer denies all of the allegations, and characterizes her detailed descriptions of repeated sexual encounters with his client as complete works of fiction.

    The man, the girl admitted in her interview with police, was not unkind. He’d take her out to restaurants in Marina Bay. Once, when she’d run away from home, he gave her $500, and then $500 more. He said she was welcome to stay at his place whenever she liked, though she never took him up on the offer. He let her use his credit card to shop online, and she’d spend as much as $1,500 at a time, not as compensation, but because, she said, William O’Connell, the powerful developer who’d helped remake the town of Quincy, simply “wanted to take care of her.”

    As the clock neared midnight on December 12, 2009, Joseph Fasano and Jennifer Bynarowicz were headed home to Quincy. They had spent the night out in Milton, where they’d been celebrating the birthday of Fasano’s mother. The two had been dating for a while, and lived together in a Quincy condo rented by Bynarowicz, a pretty 34-year-old. Fasano, 30, was a Milton firefighter and former Marine who’d served in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He had a wide face, a thick neck, and a bit of a dark side.

    After a drink or two at the Dorchester bar Peggy O’Neil’s and two stops for gas and cigarettes, Fasano drove Bynarowicz’s Jeep Grand Cherokee along Hancock Street in Quincy, nearing home. As he approached the intersection with Commander Shea Boulevard, a dark-colored Porsche cut in front of him; Fasano later told police that he responded by tailgating the car until the driver of the Porsche suddenly slammed on his brakes and stopped right there, in the middle of Commander Shea.

    Fasano pulled over and got out to confront the driver. He’d had a few drinks that night and was the kind of guy who was easily agitated, anyway. Bynarowicz, who stayed in the Jeep, watched as the driver of the Porsche also stepped out of his car. He was a white man wearing a black knit cap. Within seconds, she later told police, she heard a popping sound and saw the Porsche speed away. She got out of her Jeep, found Fasano lying in the street, and screamed. He was bleeding from his abdomen. “I’ve been shot,” he said. Police arrived to find Fasano being treated by EMTs, Bynarowicz hysterical, and cocaine and a couple hundred dollars sitting on the floor of the Jeep. According to an incident report later filed in court, when police asked Fasano if the shooting had anything to do with the drugs and the cash, he remained silent. They didn’t press. They thought he was dying.

    It didn’t take long for the cops to track down the driver of the Porsche. A camera at Central Ave. Auto Service just down the street captured the car leaving the scene of the shooting and heading in the direction of Marina Bay, less than two miles away. Security cameras in the garage at 2001 Marina Bay had filmed a dark Porsche pulling into space number 20, registered to Robert O’Connell, the 40-year-old nephew of William O’Connell. The building concierge confirmed the car belonged to Robert and identified him as the man shown on the garage video exiting the car.

    A quick police check revealed that Robert had a license to carry firearms, and owned a total of four guns, including two Smith & Wesson .45-caliber handguns. A .45-caliber shell casing had been recovered at the scene. Three days after the shooting, Robert turned himself in and gave police permission to search his car. They discovered gunpowder residue as well as a can of triple-action defense spray. At his condo they found the two Smith & Wessons and ammunition that matched the bullet doctors had removed from Joseph Fasano’s upper abdomen at Boston Medical Center. Fasano, who underwent multiple surgeries, remained in the hospital for nearly a week.

    Before tracking down Robert, the police had labeled the whole thing a random act of road rage. “I would say this is probably fairly common,” Jeffrey Burrell, a Quincy police lieutenant, told reporters the day after the shooting. “This seems to be the way people drive now.”

    The rags-to-riches ascent of William O’Connell and younger brother Peter has become something of a South Shore legend. They came from modest means — their dad was a milkman and their mom worked nights at a factory — and bought their first piece of land in 1958 with $450 that Peter earned from selling newspapers at Quincy’s Fore River Shipyard. In 1969, when William was 30 and Peter 26, the pair cofounded their development company. Their first project was a six-unit apartment building on that original lot.

    Over the years, Peter and William O’Connell worked tirelessly and equally hard to class up Quincy, the geographic and socioeconomic pit stop between Dorchester and Braintree. O’Connell Management Company, which in later years grew to include Peter’s sons, Thomas and Robert, developed dozens of high-profile residential and office buildings, including the World Trade Center in Boston; Quincy’s Louisburg Square South; the nationally recognized Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy; and additional properties in Colorado, Florida, and overseas.

    The brothers’ signature project, though, was Marina Bay in Quincy, which features restaurants, shops, offices, and the region’s largest private marina. First developed in the ’80s, the place became known as a celebrity haven, the “Nantucket of Boston” — home to boldface residents such as Tom Brady, Chet Curtis, and a host of other media types and athletes, some of whom became close friends with the O’Connells. During Peter’s ill-fated 1989 run for Quincy mayor, his personal friend Ted Kennedy was out there stumping for him. Former Cardinal Bernard Law was reportedly a passenger on an O’Connell family private plane.

    Few high-end real estate developers get into the business to make friends, and it’s true that many O’Connell projects have faced opposition from politicians, environmentalists, and various other groups, but the family has for the most part been liked and respected. “They helped build Quincy,” Peter Forman, South Shore Chamber of Commerce president and CEO, has said. “[The family is] very much a part of the community.” As kids, the brothers passed out campaign fliers for Arthur Tobin, a former Quincy mayor who now serves as clerk magistrate of the city’s district court. Former Quincy Mayor Walter Hannon Jr. partnered with the O’Connells in the development of Granite Links. And over the years, the O’Connells have given thousands of dollars to local candidates, including former U.S. Representative William Delahunt (who lives at Marina Bay), former state Treasurer Tim Cahill, and current Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey. The brothers, it seems, were strategic in their donations; their close ties to so many local leaders didn’t exactly hurt their development projects.

    While Peter was the conservative brother, the one with a stable family life and a name that tended to appear in the papers only in connection with the family’s various projects, William was never a man people might describe as upstanding. He was a workaholic, but high-profile trouble seemed to swirl around him. In 1990, his 29-year-old son, Matthew “Ky” O’Connell, was convicted of second-degree murder for killing 22-year-old Julie Hamilton, a friend of a friend. Her body was found in a shallow grave near the house Ky shared with his mother, Mary McLain. During the trial, McLain testified that as a child Ky had frequently set fires and ripped apart his teddy bears. The night of the murder, she remembered, he’d woken her three times to ask where she kept a pick and shovel. Ky was sentenced to life in prison, but was eventually transferred to Bridgewater State Hospital, a facility for convicts in need of psychiatric care.

    Then, in 2002, William was charged in the accidental death of his longtime best friend, Bill Sanderson, a South Shore real estate agent. During a Fourth of July celebration, Sanderson was struck by the propeller of William’s boat, which had been anchored illegally in shallow water off Martha’s Vineyard. Peter O’Connell rode to the hospital with Sanderson, holding the dying man. William O’Connell left the scene, later claiming he was simply looking for a safe place to dock, but once on land he refused to take a police Breathalyzer test. Sanderson’s widow, Donna, asked the judge for leniency. William was put on six months’ pretrial probation on the negligent homicide charge and received a 120-day suspension of his driver’s license, and the case was dismissed.

    William O’Connell was regarded in some circles as a womanizer and party boy with a destructive nature. Six years later he was involved in a private-helicopter crash with two New Hampshire women in their early twenties.

    And so by the time news of William’s most recent troubles surfaced in May of this year, people were well used to hearing about his assorted transgressions. But even by the standards of his checkered past, the allegations in his latest mogul-gone-wild episode — charges of child rape and drug trafficking — were shocking.

    The girl, now 15, returned home in October 2010. For a year now, her mother had noticed her daughter’s expensive clothing, the new cell phones, her increasingly troubled mood. But whenever she was confronted, the girl denied that anything was wrong.

    She finally shared her secret with a friend, and then, in March of this year, with the police. She told them of the past two years, of the fancy condo and the numerous times she’d been given cash and had sex with William O’Connell and — at his direction — several others. She also told police that William kept a metal safe in the back of a closet at his Marina Bay condo. State police searched the residence on March 31. According to police, the safe turned out to contain 18.49 grams of cocaine — enough for prosecutors to charge William with felony trafficking. The authorities also tracked down and arrested Kookie, who was identified as 21-year-old Phyllis Capuano of Everett.

    O’Connell’s lawyer, Stephen Delinsky, lays out a very different story from the one the girl tells. He insists that the whole thing was a setup: Bill — a man who liked to help people — was being extorted. “When the facts are revealed, it will become apparent to everybody that [William] is the victim of malicious lies,” Delinsky says. “Mr. O’Connell was the victim of extortion. He never had any physical relationship with this woman. The allegations are made up.” In Delinsky’s mind, the case has classist undertones. He cites what he calls similar cases in which prominent defendants — including members of the Duke lacrosse team and, more recently, French economist and politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn — were wrongly accused of sexual misconduct. Delinsky won’t comment on how his client and the girl were introduced. “The extortion is a very complicated story and I can’t reveal everything, but there are clear motives for this woman to come forward the way she did,” he says. “Mr. O’Connell has helped a lot of people. To help somebody is not a crime.”

    Sexual assault cases often come down to one person’s word against another’s, the classic he said, she said. In such cases, guilt or innocence often turns on credibility. “This is not the first case that will go to trial in which one side accuses the other of a shakedown,” says David Frank, a former Suffolk County assistant DA. “Clearly the defendant in this case has a lot of money and so has grounds to make that sort of an argument, but if the defense is going to suggest that this is nothing more than an extortion attempt, they’re certainly going to have to have the evidence to back that up.” If the girl’s motive in coming forward was money, Frank says, that could raise questions about her credibility. But if the prosecution can show beyond reasonable doubt that statutory rape occurred, it may not matter. “At the end of the day,” he says, “the law does not allow an adult to have sex with a minor under any circumstance.”

    In the days after the shooting, as he lay in critical condition at Boston Medical Center, news reports painted Milton firefighter Joseph Fasano as a kind of hero. He was a veteran, a public servant, and the victim of a senseless crime.

    But then a more complicated picture began to emerge as subsequent stories detailed an alcohol-fueled domestic violence dispute in his past, a baby daughter who’d died accidentally, and a case of post-traumatic stress disorder for which he’d taken medication off and on for years. In 2007, it turned out, police had been called to the Weymouth apartment he shared with an ex. According to the official police report, they found a drunken Fasano “screaming and yelling at the top of his lungs,” with the apartment in shambles: shattered glass, an upended coffee table, parts of the ceiling on the floor. It also came out that while at Boston Medical Center, Fasano admitted that, on the night of the shooting, he’d snorted coke earlier that evening.

    Robert O’Connell, meanwhile, showed up in court sporting a baby-blue sweater, khaki pants, and a deer-in-headlights look. He was eventually indicted for assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. After pleading innocent to all charges, he was released on $500,000 bail, but was forced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and to restrict his travel to his lawyer’s office and his mother’s house. His case is likely to go to trial in the spring. If convicted on all charges, he could face 35 years in prison.

    In court, Robert seemed as genuinely mild-mannered as his attorneys had set out to portray him to be. He’d led a moderately ordinary, if privileged, 40 years, graduating from Stonehill College with an economics degree and working at State Street Corporation before joining the family business. Aside from a few speeding tickets in the ’90s, his record was squeaky clean. In 2006, he’d suffered a brain aneurysm that forced him to take a smaller role in O’Connell Management. This was no hard-bodied alpha male. That night in December, he’d been coming home from dinner with friends; he was, in general, described as a homebody who not long ago had lived with his mother. “He’s frail,” Peter, his father, told a judge at one point. “You wouldn’t classify him as a tough guy.”

    Robert’s attorneys have been busy characterizing Fasano as a short-tempered monster with considerable mental health issues exacerbated by consistent drug use. “Robert acted legally in self-defense when he was confronted on the street that night,” says his high-powered Quincy lawyer, William Sullivan, who is also representing Nathaniel Fujita, the Wayland teen accused of murdering his former high school girlfriend this summer. In June, Sullivan filed a motion to subpoena phone records from the night of the incident, hoping to prove that Fasano bought, or sought to buy, drugs at least once in the hours before the shooting. At 3:23 p.m. that day, according to an affidavit Sullivan filed in court, Fasano texted a pal named “Jimmy,” asking if he had any “boxos,” a street name for Suboxone, a prescription drug that can produce a heroinlike high. Texts exchanged later that evening between Fasano and a guy named “Tweeze” suggest that Fasano may have scored drugs as late as 11:39 p.m., approximately 10 minutes before he was shot — though Fasano’s hospital records show he admitted only to using alcohol and cocaine the night of the incident.

    Still, plenty of questions remain: What prompted Robert to allegedly jam his brakes in front of a Jeep and then stop the Porsche in the middle of the street in the first place? And if he fired in self-defense, why did he flee the scene so quickly, without reporting the confrontation?

    “The fact is that an unarmed man on a Quincy street was shot by a man who left the scene and was not found for several days — so the self-defense claim would not appear to be very viable,” says Ben Zimmerman, Fasano’s attorney in a civil suit that will be filed following the outcome of the criminal case. “The question is, Can someone, no matter how influential or whatever their station in life may be, shoot someone in the street, and leave, and get away with it?” Zimmerman went on to say that “Not only did [Fasano] get shot with a .45-caliber handgun and lose half his liver, but he’s also had to endure having his private life exposed and his name brought out in ways that it probably shouldn’t have been. His life is very different than it was.”

    Indeed, Fasano has had a swift undoing. In May 2010, just months after Milton’s fire chief, John Grant, had described him to the Patriot Ledger as “A very good firefighter, a very well-liked kid,” Fasano was fired for failure to cooperate with an internal investigation and conduct unbecoming a firefighter. He appealed his dismissal to the state Civil Service Commission, but was denied. He’s currently unemployed.

    • ^^ 12-16-09 Police close in on suspected shooter (Patriot Ledger)

      Police towed a silver Porsche owned by Robert O’Connell from outside his Marina Bay condo Tuesday evening as part of their investigation into a shooting Saturday night that left a Milton firefighter in critical condition.

      A member of one of Quincy’s most powerful families was expected to be charged today with shooting an off-duty Milton firefighter during the weekend.

      Robert O’Connell, 39, the son of Marina Bay developer and former mayoral candidate Peter O’Connell, was expected to surrender to Quincy police this morning. His lawyer is John McGlone III of Quincy, whose law office is in Marina Bay.

      Tuesday night, police towed O’Connell’s silver Porsche from its spot at the Marina Bay condominium complex where he lives.

    • VIDEO: Bail set at $500,000 for O’Connell charged with shooting firefighter — Dec 16, 2009 — A member of one of Quincy’s most powerful families faces charges he shot an off-duty Milton firefighter. Robert O’Connell, 40, the son of Marina Bay developer and former mayoral candidate Peter O’Connell, walked into Quincy police headquarters on Sea Street at about 8:15 a.m. Wednesday with his lawyer, John McGlone III of Quincy, whose law office is in Marina Bay.

      A member of one of Quincy’s most powerful families was arraigned today on charges he shot and critically wounded an off-duty Milton firefighter during the weekend.

      Robert O’Connell, 40, the son of Marina Bay developer and former mayoral candidate Peter O’Connell, walked into Quincy police headquarters with his lawyer, John McGlone III of Quincy, at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday.

      Judge Mark Coven set bail at $500,000. If O’Connell posts it, he will have to wear a GPS monitoring and remain inside his Marina Bay condo. A probable cause hearing has been scheduled for next month.

      Joseph Fasano, 30, of Quincy, was shot in the abdomen shortly before midnight Saturday at the corner of Hancock Street and Commander Shea Boulevard, less than 2 miles from where O’Connell lives. Police are not commenting on a possible motive for the shooting.

      Police confirmed Wednesday that a small amount of cocaine “consistent with personal use” was found inside the Jeep that Fasano was driving Saturday night. No charges have been filed in connection with the drugs.

      Before his son’s arraignment in Quincy District Court, Peter O’Connell said: “The family is praying for all the parties involved. He’s just distraught.”

      McGlone told reporters Wednesday that his client’s world, “has been tipped upside down” by his arrest and that he has never been arrested before. He said O’Connell was driving home alone at the time of the shooting after having dinner with friends.

      Quincy police began watching O’Connell’s condo and parking spot on Monday. Tuesday night, they towed O’Connell’s Porsche Cayman from its spot at the Marina Bay condominium complex where he lives. They also searched his condo and recovered guns and ammunition, including a .45 caliber gun believed to be the weapon used in the Saturday night shooting. O’Connell has had a license to carry a gun since 2007 but police said they will move to get that license revoked.

      Fasano, a Milton firefighter for the past four years, has undergone several surgeries at Boston Medical Center and is still in critical condition.

      Police said that Fasano and his live-in girlfriend had just stopped for gas at the Hess station on Hancock Street not far from where they live when a Porsche got ahead of the Jeep Fasano was driving. Fasano’s girlfriend, who owns the Jeep, told police that the driver of the Porsche repeatedly hit the brakes then accelerated, a maneuver typically used to irritate the other driver. Both men stopped their cars and got out. That’s when the driver of the Porsche shot Fasano once in the abdomen and then drove away, police said.

      Police traced the Porsche to O’Connell using videotape taken by surveillance cameras at nearby businesses and residences. A camera captured an image of O’Connell driving up to his condo minutes after the shooting, police said.

      “This was a very difficult crime to solve,” Police Chief Paul Keenan said. “We did not have much to go on.” He said O’Connell is not talking to police on the advice of his lawyer.

      McGlone noted that Fasano’s girlfriend, whose name police are not releasing because she is a witness, did not identify the driver of the Porsche and only gave police part of the license plate number. Plus, she described the Porsche as being silver. O’Connell’s is brown.

      Police said they are continuing to investigate what connection O’Connell may have to Fasano and his girlfriend and what may have prompted the confrontation.

      Fasano lives with the woman in a condo at 90 Quincy Shore Drive. According to the city assessor’s office, William O’Connell, Robert O’Connell’s uncle, owns the condo in which the couple live.

      Fasano was on probation for 14 months and ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings until May 2008 following a fight he had with his former girlfriend at his Weymouth apartment in March 2007. Police reported that Fasano flashed his firefighter’s badge and later threatened to kill one of the officers who arrived to break up the fight. He was sentenced to probation for domestic assault and battery, threatening to commit a crime and disorderly conduct.

      On Saturday, Fasano and his current girlfriend went to a birthday party for Fasano’s mother in Milton and then went to a bar in Dorchester., police said. They were on their way home to their condo when the shooting happened.

      O’Connell was charged with assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and unlawful discharge of a firearm.

      O’Connell listed his occupation as a real estate developer with Marina Bay Development on a report filed earlier this year with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

      He and his extended family have given thousands of dollars to local politicians and candidates over the years, including to U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, who lives at Marina Bay, and Treasurer Tim Cahill, also of Quincy.

      O’Connell is a 1987 graduate of Archbishop Williams High School. His father, Peter, and uncle, William O’Connell, developed Marina Bay, State Street South and Boston’s World Trade Center and are principals in Quarry Hills Associates, the owners of Granite Links Golf Club. Peter O’Connell ran for mayor in 1989, but lost to James Sheets in a landslide. Peter O’Connell has been honored by several groups over the years for his charitable efforts.

      This is not the first time that the extended O’Connell clan has run into trouble with police. Robert O’Connell’s cousin, Matthew “Ky” O’Connell, was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1987 stabbing death of Julie Hamilton, 22, who grew up in Randolph. Hamilton’s body was found in a shallow grave in a wooded area about 100 feet from the house where Matthew O’Connell was living with his mother.

      Matthew O’Connell, William O’Connell’s son, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

      William O’Connell was given six months probation after being charged with negligent motorboat homicide in 2002. O’Connell’s best friend, William Sanderson, 62, of Quincy, was killed when he was struck by the propellers of a boat with O’Connell at the helm off Chappaquiddick Island. A charge of drunken operation of a boat was dismissed.

      • Boat Accident Takes One Life — Chris Burrell — Thursday, July 4, 2002 - 8:00pm

        A Quincy man vacationing on Chappaquiddick was killed yesterday afternoon after being sucked into the propeller blades of a 47-foot white cigarette boat piloted by his best friend, William O'Connell. Mr. O'Connell, a prominent Quincy developer, now faces charges of operating a motorboat while under the influence of alcohol and fleeing the scene of a boating accident.

        He will be arraigned in Edgartown District Court this morning.

        The tragedy struck in Edgartown harbor on an otherwise festive Fourth of July, just as crowds started lining the downtown streets in anticipation of the annual parade.

        But while kids clutched flags and waited for candy to be thrown from the floats, emergency rescue crews were rushing to the harbor on a priority one call to see if they could save a man with severe abdominal wounds who had just been pulled from the water by the assistant harbor master.

        It all started after William B. Sanderson, 62, helped his friend's son and two grandchildren climb off Mr. O'Connell's performance speedboat called Thunder Enlightening. The speed boat had come ashore near Chappy Point Beach on the Edgartown outer harbor at about 3:45 p.m. and was pointed in, resting on the beach. But the big boat was unsteady in the current, police said.

        "[Mr. Sanderson] got out to help steady the boat and slipped under and struck the propeller blades,” said state police Sgt. Robert Moore.

        Assistant harbormaster Michael Hathaway was very close by, manning the pump-out boat, and witnessed Mr. Sanderson as he was sucked under the boat. He responded immediately, helping to pull Mr. Sanderson from the water.

        "He had severe wounds to the abdomen," said state police Sgt. Jeffrey Stone.

        Eyewitnesses said it was a gruesome scene. "It was a mess," said one official at the harbor master office less than two hours after the incident.

        Another man, who had helped to pull the victim into the harbor master boat, said the water was red with blood.

        Mr. Hathaway rushed the victim to the dock by Edgartown Yacht Club. "An ambulance met us there in less than 10 seconds," said harbor master Charles Blair Jr.

        Emergency medical crews could be heard on a police scanner, saying that Mr. Sanderson was in cardiac arrest and they were attempting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

        "We had a pulse," an EMT said. "But we lost it."

        At the Martha's Vineyard Hospital, the emergency room trauma team was unable to revive Mr. Sanderson, who was pronounced dead about a half hour after arriving at the hospital, according to Dr. Alan Hirshberg, director of emergency services.

        As medical crews tried their best to rescue the victim, the speedboat captain, Mr. O'Connell, 63, had turned his boat around in the outer harbor and headed out, according to police, who dispatched a Coast Guard boat to follow him.

        By the time Mr. O'Connell returned to the Oak Bluffs harbor, a welcoming party made up of state police, Oak Bluffs police and Coast Guard officials had assembled there and placed him under arrest.

        He was charged with two felony counts: negligent operation of a motorboat causing death and leaving the scene of a motorboat accident where death occurred.

        He also faces two other charges of operating a motorboat under the influence of alcohol and operating a motorboat within 150 feet of a swimming beach.

        The beach closest to where Mr. O'Connell steered his high-speed power boat is the Chappy Point Beach, owned by the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank. The Chappaquiddick Beach Club lies a quarter-mile farther to the east.

        Mr. O'Connell was taken to the Dukes County jail in Edgartown where he was booked and then released on bail. He was expected to be arraigned this morning in Edgartown District Court. Sergeant Stone would not say whether Mr. O'Connell submitted to a breathalyzer test that would have given police his blood-alcohol level.

        "Police made certain observations" that led them to charge him with operating a boat under the influence of alcohol.

        According to police, Mr. Sanderson was not only a friend of Mr. O'Connell, but also a business associate. It is known that Mr. Sanderson was a real estate broker who worked for a Marina Bay real estate company in Quincy.

        Mr. O'Connell was one of the primary developers of the Marina Bay complex and is also one of the principal developers of a $54 million golf course project in Quincy, paid for, in part, by public funds from the Big Dig project.

        Police said the two men were best friends. Information obtained by the Gazette shows that the men were avid runners, who came to the Island at least twice to run in five-kilometer road races.

      • Man arraigned in boating death — By SUSAN MILTON, STAFF WRITER — Posted Jul 6, 2002 — Updated Jan 5, 2011 — Investigators drop one charge against Quincy developer, owner of the boat that killed his business associate.

        JAMES KINSELLA EDGARTOWN - William O’Connell nosed his 47-foot speedboat Thunder Enlightening up to Chappy Point Beach in Thursday’s sweltering afternoon heat.

        His good friend, William Sanderson, hopped off into the water.

        As the boat’s engine continued to run, Sanderson helped O’Connell’s son and two grandchildren off the boat.

        He tried to climb back into the boat but slipped.

        As family members watched from the beach, Sanderson was sucked into the boat’s propellers. The wash carried him under the boat from the stern to the bow.

        Later that afternoon, Sanderson, 63, was pronounced dead at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. O’Connell, 63, was charged in his friend’s death.

        O’Connell, a prominent Quincy developer, and Sanderson, a Quincy real estate broker and business associate of O’Connell’s, had been close for 25 years.

        Charles Blair, the Edgartown harbor master who has seen numerous nautical accidents over the years, called Thursday’s accident “the worst one I’ve ever been to.”

        O’Connell was arraigned yesterday in Edgartown District Court on charges of operating a motor boat and causing death, operating a motor boat while under the influence of alcohol, and operating a motor boat within 150 feet of a swimming beach.

        He pleaded innocent and was released on his own recognizance.

        Another charge initially filed against O’Connell, leaving the scene of a motor boat accident where a death occurred, was dropped.

        The accident occurred around 3:50 p.m. just off Chappaquiddick Island, slightly to the north of the Edgartown Harbor ferry crossing.

        Michael Hathaway, the Edgartown assistant harbor master, was nearby in the town’s environmental boat, according to Blair.

        When the accident occurred, Blair said, his understanding is that the boat’s engine was in reverse and O’Connell was away from the controls, handling a boarding ladder.

        After the boat struck Sanderson, Blair said, O’Connell ran to the controls to turn off the engine.

        The Patriot Ledger reported that Sanderson’s wife, Donna, was among those watching from the beach.

        Within five minutes of the accident, Hathaway others on the scene got Sanderson into the environmental boat.

        Less than eight minutes later, Hathaway docked the boat next to the Edgartown Yacht Club, where Sanderson was transferred to an Edgartown Fire Department ambulance.

        At 4:16 p.m., the ambulance arrived at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital in Oak Bluffs.

        Sanderson had been slashed through the abdomen, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

        Emergency room personnel tried to resuscitate Sanderson for about a half-hour before pronouncing him dead at 4:44 p.m.

        The Barnstable County Medical Examiner’s office has scheduled an autopsy for today.

        After Sanderson was loaded into the ambulance at the Edgartown dock, Blair and state Environmental Police Sgt. William Searle departed in a patrol boat to question O’Connell at the scene.

        They arrived to find O’Connell’s boat, a powerful speedboat commonly known as a “cigarette boat,” leaving the area at a high speed.

        Blair estimated that Thunder Enlightening was traveling at 60 knots - about 64 mph - or twice the speed of the patrol boat.

        “We ended up with a chase and we lost the chase,” Blair said.

        Blair and Searle notified the Coast Guard, state police and local police about the speeding boat, which Blair said he initially thought may have been heading for Cape Cod.

        A yacht in the area then reported over the marine radio that a fast boat was heading toward Oak Bluffs Harbor.

        Police were waiting for O’Connell when he pulled up to his rented slip in the harbor, and arrested him.

        O’Connell told The Patriot Ledger that he went back to Oak Bluffs because there was nowhere else his boat could dock.

        “We knew there was no available dock nearby that could handle this boat, so I took it back to Oak Bluffs where we had a dock,” he said.

        Cape and Islands First District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said that upon reviewing the evidence, there was some question whether O’Connell was trying to get to the hospital to see his friend or trying to evade police.

        As a result, O’Keefe said, authorities are not pressing the charge of leaving the scene of an accident. But O’Keefe said prosecutors have time to lodge the charge again, if they so decide.

        According to O’Keefe, O’Connell took a portable breathalyzer test at the dock that revealed a blood alcohol count of .06, which is below the legal limit of intoxication.

        But O’Keefe said police at the dock suspected he was intoxicated because of their own observations of O’Connell. O’Connell subsequently refused to take a second breathalyzer after being taken to the state police barracks in Oak Bluffs.

        O’Keefe, who called Thursday’s event “a tragic accident,” said the three charges against O’Connell are misdemeanors.

        The most serious charge, that of operating a motor vehicle and causing death, carries a potential penalty of up to five years in state prison, or 21/2 years in a house of correction.

        A pretrial conference has been scheduled for July 29 in Edgartown District Court.

        O’Connell and his brother Peter are key players in the development of Quarry Hills, a 540-acre development being built over the former Quincy Milton landfills.

        Quarry Hills is slated to include a 27-hole golf course and recreational fields. The developers are covering the former landfills with almost 13.6 million tons of fill from the Central Artery project in Boston, more commonly known as the Big Dig.

        According to a Web site describing Quarry Hills, the O’Connell brothers have developed projects including Marina Bay, State Street South Office Complex, Bayside Exposition Center, the World Trade Center in Boston, and an international project, the Foyleside Mall in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

        The site said the O’Connells manage more than 5,000 apartment units throughout the nation.

        The Patriot Ledger yesterday reported Sanderson’s wife, Donna, had worked as William O’Connell’s executive assistant.

        O’Connell told the newspaper he and William and Donna Sanderson had been his close friends for 25 years.

        “This is so horrible,” O’Connell told The Patriot Ledger. “I’m so distraught. We all are. Bill Sanderson was a wonderful man and a wonderful friend.”

        O’Connell could not be reached yesterday by the Times.

    • Developer’s son charged in road-rage shooting — By John R. Ellement and David Abel - Globe Staff / Dec 17, 2009 

      QUINCY - A member of the prominent Quincy family that developed the landmark Marina Bay neighborhood was charged yesterday with shooting an off-duty Milton firefighter before allegedly speeding off in a Porsche sports car in what police have labeled a case of road rage.

      But the lawyer for the suspect, Robert P. O’Connell, immediately launched an attack on the reputation of the firefighter, Joseph A. Fasano, 30, by getting Quincy officers to acknowledge in court that cocaine was found in Fasano’s vehicle after the shooting late Saturday night.

      The lawyer, John (Jack) McGlone, also insisted that Quincy police do not have direct evidence linking O’Connell, 40, to the shooting, which left Fasano fighting for his life at Boston Medical Center where he was in critical but stable condition yesterday.

      Quincy police officers testified that a .45-caliber shell casing was recovered at the shooting scene on Commander Shea Boulevard and that they seized two .45-caliber Smith & Wesson pistols from O’Connell’s home in the Marina Bay complex Tuesday night.

      They also said surveillance video showed a dark-colored Porsche speeding away from the site of the shooting and, just minutes later, O’Connell is seen getting out of his Porsche Cayman as he parks it in the Marina Bay garage 1.6 miles away.

      A dog trained to sniff explosives also reacted when examining O’Connell’s Porsche, suggesting that the animal smelled gunpowder residue, Lieutenant John Steele testified yesterday.

      “Everything started to point to Mr. O’Connell,’’ Steele said in court.

      But McGlone told reporters that O’Connell is a licensed gun owner who enjoys target shooting. The lawyer also said that ballistic tests to be done by State Police will exonerate O’Connell.

      “The gun that was used to shoot Mr. Fasano did not belong to Mr. O’Connell,’’ McGlone told reporters after O’Connell pleaded not guilty to assault with intent to murder and other charges in Quincy District Court. Bail was set at $500,000 cash, which McGlone said the O’Connell family expects to post today.

      At the same time, McGlone said that as the investigation continues and as police await the results of State Police ballistic tests on the gun and recovered evidence, O’Connell could change his stance and claim self-defense.

      O’Connell is the son of Peter O’Connell, one of Quincy’s most prominent developers, who ran for mayor in 1989 but lost by 22 percentage points to Jim Sheets. Sheets, who served as mayor from 1990 to 2002, said yesterday that he admires the O’Connell family and that they have played “a major role in the development of Quincy.’’

      “I’m just shocked,’’ he said. “It’s really hard for me to believe. I’ve only heard good things about Robert. It’s certainly very much out of context with my knowledge of him, absolutely out of context.

      “Peter O’Connell’s story is really a rags-to-riches story,’’ he said. “His dad was a milkman, and he began selling newspapers by the shipyard. He is a very outstanding man. I have nothing but respect for him, and that’s why this whole thing is very shocking to me.’’

      Adding another layer of complexity to the case was the revelation by McGlone and in police reports that Fasano was driving with a Quincy woman who has ties to O’Connell’s extended family, especially his uncle, William S. O’Connell.

      According to Quincy police reports and city assessing records, Fasano and his girlfriend, Jennifer Bynarowicz, live in a Quincy Shore Drive condo owned by William O’Connell. McGlone said his client does not know Fasano or Bynarowicz.

      Bynarowicz, who told police the entire incident was random, could not be reached for comment yesterday. She also told police the cocaine found in the vehicle was hers, the police report said.

      Fasano, according to police reports, was driving with Bynarowicz in the front seat of their white Jeep Cherokee on Hancock Street in North Quincy shortly before he was shot.

      After the shooting, Fasano told police he was tailgating a sports car “when all of a sudden the Porsche slammed on its brakes’’ and stopped on Commander Shea Boulevard. Fasano got out of the car to confront the driver and was shot. He could not identify the shooter, police said.

      Bynarowicz told police she turned her head away when Fasano got out of the car and that she did not see the shooting. She told police the sports car was a Porsche and that the shooter wore a hat, but could not pick him out of a photo array.

      O’Connell wore a light blue long-sleeved sweater, a blue plaid shirt, and khaki pants to court yesterday. He spent most of the hearing with eyes downcast and little or no expression.

      After the hearing, he smiled broadly when speaking with McGlone.

      Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating’s office tried to convince Judge Mark Coven that O’Connell should be held without bail as a danger to society.

      While Coven found probable cause that O’Connell was responsible for the shooting, the judge also said that the public would be protected if O’Connell was ordered to stay in his Marina Bay apartment 24 hours a day while the case is pending.

      Fasano’s family attended the court hearing, but declined to comment. Fasano joined the Milton Fire Department in 2005 and is the son of a Milton firefighter.

      It was not the first time the O’Connell family had a brush with the law.

      William O’Connell was placed on six months probation in 2003 after being charged with negligent homicide in driving a boat while drunk that led to the death of a longtime friend who fell overboard into the propeller, off Martha’s Vineyard in 2002.

      In 1990, O’Connell’s first cousin, Matthew O’Connell, was convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of a Randolph woman, whose body was found 150 yards from his Quincy home in 1987.

      • newspapers.com/newspage/438342759/ // newspapers.com/newspage/438342773/ 

      • “matthew o'connell 1987 randolph murder massachusetts“ (Google search) 

      • William O’Connell’s son, Matthew “Ky” O’Connell, was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1987 stabbing death of Julie Hamilton, 22, who grew up in Randolph and who knew Matthew O’Connell through her boyfriend. // Hamilton’s body was found in a shallow grave in a wooded area about 100 feet from the house where Matthew O’Connell was living with his mother. // Matthew O’Connell was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years and is now being held at Bridgewater State Hospital, a medium-security facility for inmates deemed in need of psychiatric care. Witnesses at his trial testified that he had a history of starting fires and skinning dead animals, and once drove his father’s Jeep into the ocean because he was angry with him. ^^^ http://www.patriotledger.com/x1444028051/High-profile-Quincy-family-at-center-of-attempted-murder-case 

      • https://lydiadustin.blogspot.com/2016/03/justice-for-julie-hamilton.html vvv

        My sister's best friend Denise wanted to talk to her friend Julie Hamilton. Julie Hamilton was murdered in 1987 at the age of 22-years old. Julie Hamilton was living with my Denise at the time. Julie went out one night with friends and never came home.  Denise has always blamed herself for the murder. That somehow she could have stopped Julie from going out that night.

        Julie Hamilton met a horrible death. On the night of August 19, 1987 Julie went out to meet her friend Chris Kendall and his friend Matthew O'Connell at a bar on the south shore in Massachusetts. Later that night they decided to back to hang out at Matthew's house, that he shared with his mother in Braintree. The home was actually a mansion as Matthew O'Connell, knows as Ky was  heir to the O'Connell property development & construction company fortune. The O'Connell's were often called the richest family in Quincy. Julie and Chris went back to Ky's house to continue the party. Chris left the home at some point in the night and on his way home stopped at my friend's apartment to tell her that Julie was dead.  Julie's body was found buried in a shallow grave 100 yards from Ky O'Connell's back door. Julie was stabbed 47 times.

        I contacted Julie. I was surprised that she was in heaven. After that violent death I assumed that she would be an earthbound spirit. Julie's energy was warm, kind, and gentle. I saw a beautiful blond girl with so much love in her heart, she was like an angel. Julie looked over at Denise and was shocked. She told me that she couldn't believe that Denise was alive.  Denise couldn't believe that Julie was OK. They were both so concerned about the other, and so shocked to be talking. I could easily see them as best-friends. Julie explained to Denise that she was fine with her death. That she had agreed to die in that violent heinous manner before she was born.

        Denise couldn't believe what she was hearing. Denise had been praying and thinking about her friend and the injustice that was done to her for over 30 years. Denise could not get over the trauma of losing her friend in such a terrible way. Julie explained that by living a short life and dying so violently that she was able to affect the lives of so many people. Her life and death touched so many people and opened their hearts and brought them together.  Denise said that was so true, and that their were over 300 people at Julie's funeral. Their were candlelight vigils and the whole community came together.

        After the reading Denise wanted to make sure that Matthew O'Connell was still in jail. Being the son of a powerful wealthy family he had the best lawyers money could buy. Matthew O'Connell took the insanity defense and made a deal.  He allegedly suffered from Bipolar disorder and was charged with second degree murder, life sentence with possibility of parole in 15 years. Denise was so angry that he got special treatment because his family had good lawyers. She never got over that her best-friend was viciously stabbed 47 times and the guy can get out in 15 years. That's why we were looking him up to make sure that he was still in jail and ease Denise's mind.

        I find Matthew O'Connell's latest parole hearing report from the Bridgewater State Hospital, a Prison for the mentally ill.  I start reading the report and I get a psychic visual hit on the murderer. The report basically says that his last parole hearing was in on 12/5/12.  No one came to the hearing to support him. Not one family member or friend. They also described him as developing schizophrenia. Schizophrenia usually develops in males in their late teens or early 20's. This guy was 52-years old. He was sentenced when he was 29-years old. The report state that he he has delusions, he has lost complete touch with reality, displays "psychotic symptoms", and "none of his answers (to parole questions) were base in reality".

        As I read this report I pictured Matthew O'Connell  in a little room filled with earthbound spirits-evil ones. I picture him being attacked by demons, monsters, shadow people, critters, and all other awful paranormal nightmares come true. However I feel like they aren't his monsters. They don't belong to him then I realize that someone is cursing him. Someone is sending paranormal monsters to torment him everyday.  Matthew O'Connell is not schizophrenic he sees these creatures because, I saw these creatures too, he is being  cursed and Someone is making his life literally a living nightmare.

        I will never forget this moment as long as I live. I turn and see Denise reading over my shoulder with a smirk on her face. // I asked, "Denise, do you curse him? Are you sending those creatures to torture him?" She smiled from ear to ear. // "Everyday". She said. "Since the day Julie died I curse him and make his life a living hell, every day".

        Denise, my sister's friend always felt like Chris Kendall brought Julie there to be murdered. That Ky gave Chris a lot of  money to introduce him to a girl that he could murder. She feels like he just wanted to know what it felt like to murder someone. I believe her because Denise is very psychic sadly, Denise has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Denise is a very rare kind of psychic she is a clairvoyant psychic. She actually sees dead people and hears them in her head day and night and has since she was a little girl. Sadly no one helped her or trained her how to use her gift when she was growing up and now she has been labeled mentally ill.

        I have been working with her to help keep them away. The first time I did energy healing on her the voices went away for a few hours. Now she tells me that the voices and spirits stop when she walks in to my house. Baby steps <3 — Posted 16th March 2016 by Lydia Dustin

      • High-profile Quincy family at center of attempted murder case — Jan 2, 2010 

        The attempted murder case against Robert O’Connell has grabbed more attention than most, because his family is entrenched in the city’s power circles, described as Kennedy-esque with of its mix of influence, good fortune and well-publicized tragedies.

        While other members of the family have developed public personas, Robert O’Connell has largely lived under the radar. He is described by his attorney, Jack McGlone, as a “homebody” and the type of man who would “cross the street instead of step on an ant.” He suffered an aneurysm – a ballooning of an artery – in 2006, which forced him to live at his mother’s house for more than a year.

        Robert O’Connell made his only imprint on the Quincy scene by serving on the city’s library board between 2001 and 2005.

        “He seemed like a nice young man – not the type you would think would be walking around with a .45,” said former Quincy Mayor Francis McCauley, whose wife served on the library board with O’Connell. “It seems to be totally out of character.”

        While there are other black marks on the O’Connell family history, most people in Quincy who know the family members have trouble reconciling the emerging details of the Dec. 12 shooting with the O’Connells’ prominent traits: hardworking, powerful, white-collar and straight-laced.

        Adding to the intrigue are the puzzling connections between victim Joseph Fasano’s girlfriend, Jennifer Bynarowicz, and O’Connell’s uncle William. The two reportedly dated for about 10 years. William O’Connell is also listed by the city assessors’ office as owning the condominium unit where Bynarowicz lives with Fasano.

        The rags-to-riches story of Robert’s father, Peter O’Connell, and uncle, William S. O’Connell, has been told in the newspaper countless times over the last three decades.

        The two brothers – sons of a milkman and night-shift factory worker – built their company, O’Connell Brothers Construction, from the ground up. Their first parcel of land was purchased in 1958 with $450 that Peter O’Connell earned while he was an engineer and selling newspapers on the side.

        They grew to be multimillionaires with public images. They touched just about every corner of the city with their projects: Marina Bay, State Street South, Granite Place, Hancock House Apartments, Granite Links Golf Club, and Louisburg Square South.

        “I knew Peter when he was a young man,” said former Quincy Mayor Joseph LaRaia. “The family was primarily under his leadership with the real estate, acquiring a few pieces of property on the lower scale. Obviously, it developed into the empire you might say he built for himself.”

        William O’Connell, divorced, is known as a workaholic with a taste for women and the jet-set lifestyle. Peter O’Connell, who raised four children with his wife, Marcia, has a more conservative reputation. Still, he makes no secret of his ties to politicians and other power brokers; he’s flown them places on his private plane.

        There was Peter O’Connell heading out to Cuba with Cardinal Bernard Law on a two-day pastoral mission. There was U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, a friend, stumping for O’Connell when he ran unsuccessfully for Quincy mayor in 1989.

        As young boys, the O’Connell brothers passed out campaign fliers for Arthur Tobin, who, after serving as mayor, is now clerk magistrate of Quincy District Court. State Rep. Stephen Tobin, working as a private attorney, has represented the two brothers on development projects.

        Former Quincy Mayor Walter Hannon Jr. and his son Walter Hannon III partnered with the O’Connells on the politically risky plan to haul in Big Dig dirt for the Quarry Hills golf course. The O’Connells hired former Mayor James Sheets’ wife.

        “They hooked themselves to Mayor James McIntyre when they were young guys,” said City Clerk Joseph Shea. “It proved to be a wise move.”

        In addition to its public triumphs in the business arena, the O’Connell family has also seen scandal.

        William O’Connell’s son, Matthew “Ky” O’Connell, was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1987 stabbing death of Julie Hamilton, 22, who grew up in Randolph and who knew Matthew O’Connell through her boyfriend.

        In 2002, William O’Connell was sentenced to six months of probation after being charged with negligent homicide while operating a motorboat. O’Connell’s best friend, William Sanderson, 62, of Quincy, was killed when he was struck by the propellers of a boat with O’Connell at the helm off Chappaquiddick Island, where the family vacations. A charge of drunken operation of a boat was dismissed.

        Peter O’Connell’s family has, until now, avoided the same type of headlines.

        His oldest son, Thomas, is also in the family business. He appears at Quincy City Council meetings on behalf of projects and is well-known around city hall. His eldest daughter, Laurie Graf, is married, lives on Adams Street in Quincy, and runs her own dance studio; his youngest daughter, Jill O’Connell, who was adopted, is listed on campaign finance reports as a homemaker in Boston.

        Robert O’Connell graduated from Stonehill College in Easton with an degree in economics. He worked at State Street Corp. for two years before joining the family company. He is said to have taken on a smaller role in the company after suffering the aneurysm in 2006. He was ticketed four times in the 1990s for speeding and failure to stop, and otherwise had a clean record until the attempted-murder charge.

        Robert O’Connell now lives at a luxury condominium complex on Marina Bay Drive with his father. A surveillance video that shows his copper Porsche Cayman backing into its reserved space in the complex’s heated garage – just minutes after the shooting – is part of the evidence police have compiled in their case against O’Connell.

        Police said there also was gunpowder residue on the Porsche, and tests are being done on several guns taken from Robert O’Connell’s condo, including a .45-caliber handgun believed to be the weapon used to shoot Fasano on Dec. 12.

        Quincy Police Chief Paul Keenan has asked State Police to suspend Robert O’Connell’s Class A gun license – and revoke it altogether if O’Connell is convicted. That license has allowed him to own guns and carry a concealed handgun. It was issued on his 38th birthday, in October 2007, by then-Quincy Police Chief Robert Crowley.

        Robert O’Connell, who pleaded innocent to charges of attempted murder, assault, and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, is under 24-hour home confinement at 2001 Marina Bay Drive and has been fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet.

        Fasano was hospitalized in critical but stable condition after the shooting. He was able to leave the hospital during the week leading up to Christmas.

        Several members of the O’Connell family have not returned phone calls from The Patriot Ledger or have declined to comment.

      • Son of prominent Quincy developer sentenced to seven months — By Craig Douglas, Boston Business Journal, Sep 25, 2012

        The scion of one of Greater Boston’s most successful developers has plead guilty to assault with intent to murder in the 2009 shooting of a man during a traffic altercation in Quincy.

        Robert O’Connell, 42, is scheduled to serve seven months in Norfolk County Jail, beginning Oct. 1.

        The Patriot Ledger of Quincy first reported the news Tuesday, the same day O’Connell’s trial in Norfolk District Court was to commence. The paper said the seven-month sentence accounts for nearly five months of house arrest already served and comes with a sentence of seven-years probation that, if violated, carries a five-year minimum mandatory prison sentence.

        Tuesday’s sentencing was the latest in a string of legal twists and turns involving the O’Connell family. In February 2011 — less than a month after selling the Marina Bay apartment complex for $36.2 million — entities controlled by Peter O’Connell’s other son, Thomas O’Connell, sued the city of Quincy to avoid a $58,000 water bill. Four months later, the elder O’Connell’s brother and business partner, developer William O’Connell, was arraigned in Quincy District Court on multiple counts of aggravated statutory rape, drug trafficking and paying for sex. He is still awaiting trial.

      • Robert O’Connell sentenced to serve 7 months for Quincy shooting — Sep 25, 2012

        Robert O’Connell, the son of one of Quincy’s most prominent developers, has reached a plea agreement in a case in which he was charged with shooting an ex-Milton firefighter in the stomach after a traffic confrontation in 2009…

        The agreement was announced in Norfolk County Superior Court on Tuesday, the day prosecution and defense attorneys were scheduled to make their opening trial arguments.

        On the assault with intent to murder charge, which carries a five-year minimum mandatory prison sentence, O’Connell will be sentenced to seven years’ probation. If he violates any term of the probation, he will be subject to the five-year prison sentence.

        On the assault and battery with a dangerous weapon charge, O’Connell will be sentenced to 2 1/2 years in the county jail. He will serve one year of the sentence, with the balance suspended for seven years. The agreement gives O’Connell credit for time served for the five-month period he was ordered to home confinement and wore a monitoring bracelet.

        O’Connell is the son of Peter O’Connell, a former mayoral candidate in Quincy who, along with his brother, William, developed Marina Bay, Granite Links Golf Course and other large-scale projects in Quincy and Boston. William O’Connell is currently awaiting trial on statutory rape and drug trafficking charges.

      • Robert O’Connell freed after less than two months in jail — Nov 21, 2012

        Robert O’Connell will be home for Thanksgiving.

        The son of one of Quincy’s most prominent developers was granted parole and was to be released today after serving less than two months of a seven-month jail sentence for a 2009 shooting.

        O’Connell pleaded guilty Sept. 25 to assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in the shooting of former Milton firefighter Joseph Fasano, who survived. O’Connell reported to Norfolk County jail in Dedham on Oct. 1 to serve his sentence.

        He underwent a parole review at the jail before Parole Board member Lucy Soto-Abbe on Oct. 31, and parole was granted, said David Weber, spokesman for the Norfolk County Sheriff’s Office.

        The 43-year-old, who did not have a criminal record prior to the shooting, was scheduled to be released this morning.

        O’Connell was sentenced to seven years’ probation on the attempted-murder charge, and 2 1/2 years for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He was ordered to serve one year, with the balance suspended for seven years, and received credit for five months of pretrial home confinement.

        Caitlin Casey, chief of staff of the state Parole Board, did not return a call for comment on the matter. O’Connell’s attorney, William Sullivan, and prosecutor, Andrew Berman, declined to comment.

        O’Connell’s attorneys filed a court motion Oct. 12 to retain the right to argue in the future for a revision or revocation of the sentence. Sullivan said the filing was a routine post-sentencing action, and that no argument has been made to the court to modify O’Connell’s sentence. On Oct. 15, a $50,000 bail surety was returned to O’Connell’s father, Peter.

        Peter O’Connell, a former mayoral candidate in Quincy, along with his brother, William, developed Marina Bay, Granite Links Golf Course and other large-scale projects in Quincy and Boston. William O’Connell is awaiting trial on statutory rape and drug trafficking charges.

        The 2009 shooting – initially described by authorities as a road rage incident – occurred just before midnight Dec. 13, 2009, on a ramp at Hancock Street and Commander Shea Boulevard in Quincy.

        Robert O’Connell, driving in front of then-Milton firefighter and Marine Joseph Fasano, came to a stop in front of Fasano’s car. Both men got out of their vehicles and exchanged words, and O’Connell shot Fasano in the stomach. Fasano was traveling with a former girlfriend of William O’Connell’s in the passenger seat.

        In remarks at Robert O’Connell’s sentencing hearing, Fasano said he wanted to put the incident and the stress it caused behind him.

        Fasano is suing O’Connell, seeking $1.5 million in damages and to cover costs related to stomach surgeries he underwent as a result of the shooting.

  • (Giacobbe cont.) ^^ There’s been plenty of speculation about whether the two O’Connell cases are in any way linked.

    Consider first the woman who was in the Jeep with Fasano, his girlfriend Jennifer Bynarowicz. Both she and Robert have said that they do not know each other. On the night Fasano was shot, in fact, Bynarowicz told police she had never before seen the shooter, and couldn’t identify him even if she were shown photos. Perhaps that’s so, but it seems odd considering that William O’Connell was Bynarowicz’s landlord — and that, according to some media reports, she and William had dated for as long as 10 years.

    As for the cocaine found inside the Jeep, police say Bynarowicz told them that the drugs were hers — “I’ve been drinking, I’ve been partying,” she said. When police asked her where she’d gotten the coke, she began to cry and said, “That has nothing to do with it…. You don’t believe me.” (Bynarowicz, who has not been charged in connection with the incident, did not respond to requests for comment.)

    Sullivan, Robert’s attorney, wouldn’t comment on whether there could be a connection between Robert’s and William’s cases, but does say there’s no indication that there was any relationship between Robert and Fasano specifically. Zimmerman maintains that the two men barely even had a chance to exchange words during the altercation, which could create doubt about whether Robert acted in self-defense, and could raise questions about the nature of their dispute. Prosecutor Andrew DiCarlo Berman — a private-practice attorney who was assigned to prosecute both cases because the O’Connell family has made past campaign donations to Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey — sees the cases of the wayward O’Connells as clear-cut and entirely separate: One man’s up for statutory rape, another for attempted murder. “I honestly have no idea if the two cases are connected; for my purposes they are not,” he says. “But am I curious? You bet.”

    In September, William was arraigned in Norfolk Superior Court on charges including four counts of statutory rape, one count of cocaine trafficking, and two counts of committing an unnatural and lascivious act with a child under 16. Statutory rape convictions carry a minimum sentence of 10 years per charge. (William pleaded not guilty to all charges.) He retains a prominent role in three other development corporations — O’Connell Denver Properties Inc., Seaport Aviation Inc., and Seaview Real Estate Inc. — and, pending trial, is allowed to travel to Florida, Colorado, and New York for business, though he must submit to regular drug screenings and cannot have unsupervised contact with children under 16, with the exception of his grandchildren. Capuano, meanwhile, was arraigned for rape of a child, among other charges, and pleaded not guilty. Both cases are pending.

    At the same time, Peter O’Connell has tried to keep the family business from being dragged through the muck along with the reputations of his brother and his son. In a letter that went out in May to members and shareholders of the Granite Links Golf Club, Peter announced that William had resigned from his position as president, treasurer, and director of Quarry Hills Associates, the parent company of the golf club. “We wanted you to hear this first from us,” wrote Peter, “because that’s how families treat each other.”

  • Quincy developer William O'Connell may escape jail on sex charges - WCVB - Mar 14, 2013

    QUINCY, Mass. — Less than two years after William O’Connell was charged with having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl, and three months after the girl was killed in a fiery car crash, the wealthy Quincy developer is likely to walk out of court Friday a free man, our news partners at the Patriot Ledger reported.

    A prosecutor and lawyer for O’Connell will present a plea agreement to a Norfolk County Superior Court judge that drops all charges against O’Connell, including four statutory rape counts and a cocaine-trafficking charge.

    In exchange, O’Connell will plead guilty to possessing cocaine. His sentence will be decided by a judge but is not likely to include jail time.

    The statutory rape charges are being dropped because of the alleged victim’s death, which occurred around 3:30 a.m. in Malden while she was driving a car police say did not belong to her. Investigators have ruled out any foul play in the death.

    The girl’s death meant statements she made to investigators about her relationship with O’Connell could not be admitted as trial evidence, said Andrew Berman, a special prosecutor assigned to the case by Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey.

    “The defendant has not had a chance to cross-examine the witness relating to her statements,” Berman said. “It is a fundamental right of the defendant to confront witnesses against him. This case was based entirely upon the evidence that we expected (the victim) to give in court.”

    O’Connell’s trial was scheduled to begin in October.

    The prosecution charged that the girl and O’Connell, 73, had a sexual relationship over several months in 2009, when she was 14.

    The girl, who was 17 when she died, told investigators O’Connell gave her cash and a credit card to buy clothes and gifts, and a cellphone to keep in touch with her.

    O’Connell’s lawyer, Stephen Delinsky, declined to comment on the plea deal when reached Thursday.

    Charges will also be dropped against Phyllis Capuano, a 22-year-old from Everett who was charged as O’Connell’s co-conspirator in the initial alleged assault.

    Prosecutors say Capuano introduced the alleged victim to O’Connell.

    Berman said Capuano would not make a reliable trial witness against O’Connell.

    After an initial interview, Berman said Capuano obtained a lawyer and began to assert her fifth amendment rights.

    “Capuano admitted in an un-sworn statement to the State Police that she witnessed the initial sexual assault by O’Connell; she later recanted that statement,” Berman said. “Without her testimony, in light of the death of the victim, that charge is not provable.”

    O’Connell’s alleged victim was interviewed by a State Police investigator in March 2011 about her relationship with O’Connell, and detailed interactions with him in his Marina Bay condominium.

    Her statements, including a description of a safe in the condominium that contained cocaine, were used in support of a request for a search warrant for the condominium. Police found 18 grams of cocaine in the safe, but Berman said there was not suitable evidence to prove O’Connell was distributing it, a key element of a drug trafficking charge.

    The arrangement comes after Berman reached a plea deal last year with O’Connell’s nephew, Robert, who was charged with shooting a Milton firefighter in the stomach in 2009 after a traffic confrontation in Quincy.

    The victim, Joseph Fasano, said he did not want to revisit the trauma of the shooting by testifying at trial. Robert O’Connell ultimately did less than two months in jail after he was paroled and reached an undisclosed settlement with Fasano in a civil lawsuit.

    Berman, who said the victim in the William O’Connell sex assault case was reliable and good-hearted, said he was “disappointed” by the outcome of the case against the prominent developer.

    “I have to play the cards that I’m dealt and base my decision on the state of the evidence,” Berman said. “I believe that crimes were committed, and it’s disappointing that the victim won’t have her day in court.”

  • Quincy developer gets probation term - 03/16/2013

    Prominent Quincy developer William O'Connell was sentenced to three years of probation Friday after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug possession, but statutory rape charges against him were dropped after the teenage girl involved died. In 2011, the girl accused the now 73-year-old William O’Connell of carrying-on a sexual relationship with her when she was 14 and 15 years old. He also allegedly gave the girl cocaine — the basis of a drug trafficking charge against him. 

    • William O’Connell to plead guilty to drug charge; jail unlikely — By Jack Encarnacao, Posted Mar 14, 2013

      Less than two years after William O’Connell was charged with having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl, and three months after the girl was killed in a fiery car crash, the wealthy Quincy developer is likely to walk out of court Friday a free man.

• “BOC was based out of Quincy, MA; he was arrested for rape and 19g of cocaine. The 14-year-old he raped was Rebecca Rezendez, killed in Malden in 2012 when returning FROM A SAFEHOUSE OUT OF THE STATE for her trial. – Her murder case was turned over to Gatcomb, the state investigator; it was turned over to State Police, which meant it went to the corrupt guys. (Gatcomb’s son had once shot a firefighter and miraculously got off scot-free.) — Also, BOC is a patron of a child escort ring.” - Lisa Kenney

  • REBECCA RESENDEZ

    • Woburn Memorial High School student will be laid to rest in Utah. By Danielle Masterson, Patch National Staff | Jan 8, 2013 

      REBECCA RESENDEZ, 17, of Woburn, passed away on Dec. 18, 2012, in Malden, MA. Rebecca was born on May 6, 1995.  Her parents are Annette Alford of Woburn, Ma. and the late Frank Resendez of California.

      A visitation was held in Woburn, Ma. on Dec. 29 and a memorial service was held in Valencia, Ca. on Jan. 2. Internment will be in Utah.

      Rebecca will be greatly missed by each of her family and many friends.  Her time here was much too short and now we must place her in God's Loving Hands.

      Rebecca is survived by her mother, Annette Alford; her grandmothers, Louise Alford and Angie Resendez of California; and her siblings Chris Rodriguez (Veronica), Brenda (Matt) Straugh, Michael Rodriguez, David(Ginger) Rodriguez and Denise (Dustin) Burke of California and Frank and Richard Resendez, both of Woburn, Ma. and many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.

    • Alleged victim in O’Connell case ‘haunted’ to the end — Jack Encarnacao, Posted Dec 20, 2012

      Rebecca Resendez constantly worried that nobody would believe her.

      “She’d call me sometimes late at night and say, ‘do you really think anybody’s going to believe me? Do you really think he’s ever going to pay for what he did?’” said her attorney, Karen Orfaly.

      The 17-year-old will never get the answers to those questions.

      Rebecca Resendez, the alleged victim in the statutory rape case against Quincy developer William O’Connell, was killed in a fiery car crash early Tuesday morning in Malden. Her death comes a short time after she returned to Massachusetts from California, where she was staying with relatives to get a break from the stress of the O’Connell case, her attorney said.

      “The damage that has been done to this little girl haunted her to her last day,” said Orfaly, who has represented Resendez in juvenile matters and encouraged her to come forward with her allegations against O’Connell.

      Malden police have ruled out foul play as a cause of the accident, which occurred at about 3:30 a.m. in a residential neighborhood. The car Resendez was driving, which investigators said did not belong to her, was propelled into the air and into a sign pole after it struck a curb and granite stairs.

      Speed appeared to be a factor, and there was no evidence of alcohol or drug use, Malden Police Lt. Detective Marc Gatcomb said. A medical examiner will conduct an autopsy on Resendez’s body.

      Resendez’s passenger, a 19-year-old girl from Woburn, was injured and taken to Massachusetts General Hospital. Her name was not released.

      O’Connell’s trial was scheduled to begin in October. The 73-year-old is charged with four counts of statutory rape in connection with an alleged relationship he had with Resendez in 2009, when she was 14. Resendez told investigators O’Connell gave her cash and a credit card to buy clothes and gifts, and a cellphone to keep in touch with her.

      Phyllis Capuano, a 22-year-old from Everett, is charged as O’Connell’s co-conspirator in the alleged sexual assaults. Prosecutors say Capuano introduced Resendez to O’Connell.

      O’Connell is also charged with cocaine trafficking. Investigators recovered 18.49 grams of cocaine during a search of O’Connell’s Marina Bay condominium.

      It’s unclear what ramifications Resendez’s death will have on the case. Prosecutor Andrew Berman said he will decide in the coming weeks if he’ll “pursue any of the charges that remain legally sustainable.”

      “For the moment, our thoughts are with her family, who have loved and supported her throughout this case,” Berman said. “She was an exceptionally intelligent and brave young woman, and her death is deeply saddening.”

      O’Connell’s attorney, Stephen Delinsky, said Wednesday he had yet to think through the ramifications on the case, but said he and O’Connell are “very sad a tragedy has happened.”

      “We extend our condolences to her family,” Delinsky said. “The classy and the dignified man that Mr. O’Connell is – notwithstanding the falsity of the allegations she made about him – he has no malice for her or her family.”

      Resendez was born in California and moved to Massachusetts with her mother, who had found a job here and was seeking a new start, Orfaly said.

      “This is no absentee mother,” Orfaly said. “This is an educated, caring, loving mother that never gave up on her.”

      Orfaly said Resendez, a student at Woburn High School whose father recently died, was “vulnerable” upon her initial arrival in Massachusetts, and looking to make friends when she met Capuano.

      “At 14 years old, those are the most formative years for an adolescent girl,” Orfaly said. ”(O’Connell) skewed everything for her. Her mother couldn’t provide enough for her when he would give her access to all kinds of credit cards.”

      Orfaly said Resendez’s mother “fought to get her off a track that (O’Connell) put her on,” and said it was “a struggle every day to get Rebecca to feel good about herself.”

      Motions filed in court by O’Connell’s lawyer paint Resendez as a runaway trying to escape strife at home and a savvy girl who used abuse allegations in the past to avoid legal consequences for charges she was facing, including assault and battery and breaking and entering.

      Orfaly said Resendez had reservations about coming forward about her alleged relationship with O’Connell and the effects it would have on her and her family.

      “She took pride in the fact that she had the courage to go forward,” Orfaly said. “But the strange thing about this child is she didn’t want revenge. She never spoke in terms of revenge. She didn’t want anything except to redeem herself. It’s frustrating that the death of this beautiful child is going to benefit an animal like William O’Connell.”

    • https://www.enterprisenews.com/x1671798343/The-stories-well-remember-from-2012 - And Robert O’Connell, whose father and uncle are prominent real estate developers in Quincy, also found relief in court in September when he pleaded guilty to shooting an ex-firefighter from Milton and got a very light sentence – seven months in jail and seven years probation. // A statutory rape case against his uncle, William S. O’Connell, took a bizarre turn earlier this month when the alleged victim, 17-year-old Rebecca Resendez, was killed in a car crash in Malden. // In March, former Quincy resident Catherine Greig pleaded guilty to charges related to helping former mobster James “Whitey” Bulger stay on the run for 16 years and was given an eight-year sentence in federal prison in Minnesota.

    • http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2012/12/kingcast-sees-patriot-ledger-report.html - Rebecca Resendez, 14 years old at the time of the alleged Statutory rapes and drug dealings of Marina Bay developer William O'Connell died in a fiery car crash just as the trial was finally scheduled. She is reported as stating that "No one would believe me...." 

      • Here is the Patriot Ledger story. I applaud their coverage, actually. But remember at noted repeatedly in my courtroom coverage, the cocaine that is at issue in the Statutory Rape case involving babysitter Phyllis Capuano is most likely from the same source as the cocaine in the Quincy Road Rage case with nephew Robert O'Connell. Remember what Jennifer Bynarowicz -- owner of the car in which firefighter Joseph Fasano was riding -- said to the police on hand? // "It's my stuff. You won't believe me....(where I got it)." Note that Ms. Bynarowicz and William O'Connell have been linked as well, chummy friends at a minimum. I documented that online but no other media dared to publish that fact. And what I still have a hard time believing is that cocaine charges were not brought for the cocaine that was on firefighter Joseph Fasano's face when Robert O'Connell shot him as he rushed up to O'Connell's Porsche. It was "recreational cocaine," watch the movie. Fascinating. Almost, but not quite as fascinating as the dearth of coverage of this death in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald. Milton is a dangerous place: Death it seems, surrounds William O'Connell and Joseph Fasano recall the untimely passing of William Sanderson down off the Vineyard as well as the death of Joey Fasano's young child. // The Ledger also reported on Robert O'Connell's two-month stint on the Attempted Murder case involving Joseph Fasano. He copped a Plea on 25 September, 2012 but I missed all of that as I was busy moving out of State around that time and preparing for an early November trip here to Seattle. In that case my gut tells me that Mr. O'Connell was in legitimate fear of his life. Joey Fasano is built like a walking bicep and he was on cocaine and probably other drugs and moving toward a guy built more like pencil, no offense just sayin'. — Posted by Christopher King, 28 December 2012

  • MALDEN POLICE CAPT. MARC GATCOMB

    • http://www.maldenpd.com/department/criminal-investigation-division // http://www.maldenpd.com/department/narcotics-unit — doesn’t seem to be corrupt… 

    • Subscription-locked, but google recommended: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/11/21/embattled-former-union-boss-retires-from-massachusetts-state-police/HHS9MWUZArXwQqoteTIi6M/story.html 

    • “Malden Police Capt. Marc Gatcomb“ (Google search) 

    • You Won't Believe What Malden Police Found Hidden in This Car — Lt. Det. Marc Gatcomb said a seized minivan had a "sophisticated" secret compartment that likely cost upwards of $20,000 to install.

      Malden Police took more than they knew into evidence this week after they seized a minivan as part of a drug-trafficking investigation. // A "sophisticated" hiding compartment (SEE VIDEO) was later discovered in the vehicle, holding a loaded 9mm handgun and hundreds of oxycodone pills, Lt. Det. Marc Gatcomb said.  // He estimated the installation cost for the compartment at "upwards of $20,000." // Clifton Moore, 49, of Malden, was allegedly using the car to supply a Woburn resident "dealing large amounts of drugs," Gatcomb said. He was arrested after detectives arranged a bulk sale as part of a sting operation. // Moore faces two charges of trafficking Class A substance, one charge of Class B possession with intent to distribute and a school zone violation.

      He was also charged with failure to register as a level 3 sex offender, and likely faces additional charges as a result of the evidence recovered in the compartment, Gatcomb said.  // Malden Police worked with their Woburn counterparts and the Worcester DEA Tactical Diversion Unit. // "We are glad to have removed another gun from the street, and once again disrupted the local street drug trade with the assistance of Malden and Woburn detectives, as well as the DEA task force," Gatcomb wrote in an email. 

    • https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-gatcomb-63131a34 -> Kenney confused Gatcomb’s son with BOC’s nephew, in the cocaine-rape-roadrage storyline; but she has all of the above research, and more, swirling around in her head, so I don’t blame her for getting her wires crossed. (To be fair, she likely has a lot of wires crossed—but that doesn’t discount the overwhelming evidence that BOC is a POS, and far too corrupt for there to not be an HBO miniseries about his rise and ultimate downfall—except that downfall is apparently never going to happen, so neither will the HBO miniseries.)

  • Quincy developer William O’Connell’s condo searched — Jack Encarnacao, Posted May 5, 2011

    A judge denied The Patriot Ledger’s request to unseal court documents related to a search warrant executed at the condominium of William O’Connell, one of Quincy’s wealthiest and most influential developers.

    Judge Robert Ziemian ruled Wednesday in a case involving William O’Connell, who, along with his brother and other family members, developed many of Quincy’s highest-end properties, including Marina Bay and Granite Links Golf Course.

    State Police executed a search warrant at William O’Connell’s condominium in the Marina Bay section of Quincy last month. At the request of Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office, Ziemian impounded documents that explain the basis for the police search and what was found.

    Under state law, search warrant documents must be filed in court and be available for public viewing within seven days of the warrant’s issuance.

    Ziemian, sitting in Quincy District Court, approved the district attorney’s request to impound the documents shortly after the search.

    Ziemian said in court Wednesday he had no idea who O’Connell was or of his prominence when he approved the impoundment.

    “That’s totally not the reason this was impounded,” he said.

    Morrissey’s office has not publicly explained its grounds for requesting an impoundment. In addition to keeping the public from seeing the police statement justifying the search warrant, and the list of items seized, the district attorney’s motion to keep that information private also was impounded.

    The Ledger said in a motion to unseal the court records that William O’Connell was the subject of the search warrant. In court Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Varsha Kukafka did not dispute The Ledger’s assertion.

    Kukafka on Wednesday outlined prior cases that dealt with restricting disclosure of search warrant information. She then requested a private meeting with Ziemian to discuss the specific reasons for impoundment, which she implied would reveal sensitive information about an investigation.

    Ziemian made his ruling after emerging from a meeting with Kukafka. He said he will revisit the unspecified time limit he placed on the impoundment at a hearing June 1.

    Michael Grygiel, a lawyer with the firm Greenberg Traurig, represented the The Patriot Ledger. He argued the search warrant is of strong community interest because of O’Connell’s public profile and that sealing it raises questions of fairness in the judicial system.

    “The public has a vital interest in knowing whether Mr. O’Connell is conducting his affairs in a law-abiding manner,” Grygiel argued to Ziemian.

    After Ziemian’s ruling, Grygiel said: “While The Patriot Ledger is disappointed that continuation of the impoundment order will keep judicial documents of overwhelming public interest unavailable to the press and public, and respectfully disagrees with the wholesale sealing of the search warrant materials that remains in place at the request of the district attorney’s office, it nevertheless appreciates the court’s consideration of the controlling legal principles in this context.”

    The editor of The Patriot Ledger, Chazy Dowaliby, said the paper regretted not being able to more fully inform its readers on the O’Connell matter.

    “We are certainly not the only ones who know that O’Connell’s condo was searched, and see no reason the public should be kept in the dark about that,” she said.

    As part of its motion, The Patriot Ledger included several clippings from its archives concerning the O’Connell family to demonstrate his status as a public figure. The clippings included coverage of the 2009 arrest of Robert O’Connell, William’s nephew, on attempted murder charges in connection with a shooting near Marina Bay.

    Morrissey, who took campaign donations from William O’Connell and his relatives during his campaigns for state Senate, appointed an independent prosecutor for the Robert O’Connell case to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest.

    Robert O’Connell’s lawyer in that case, John McGlone, was in the courtroom Wednesday for the hearing on the impoundment order.

  • William O’Connell quits leadership position at Quincy golf course — Jack Encarnacao, Posted May 6, 2011

    William O’Connell, the Quincy development magnate whose Marina Bay condominium was searched by police last month, has resigned from his position as president of the company that runs a nationally recognized Quincy golf course.

    Peter O’Connell, William’s brother and development partner, informed members of the Granite Links Golf Club at Quarry Hills of the change in a letter Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by The Patriot Ledger.

    Peter O’Connell, himself a corporate officer of the club, wrote his brother resigned “to address his personal issues.”

    “We wanted you to hear this first from us because that’s how families treat each other, and so that, should public news begin to surface regarding Mr. O’Connell’s personal matters, you would not suffer any undo worry for the welfare of our club,” Peter O’Connell wrote.

    The letter was sent the same day an article was published in The Patriot Ledger about a Quincy District Court judge’s decision to keep sealed all documents related to a State Police search of O’Connell’s condominium at Marina Bay. The article was the first published report about the search.

    Though the letter was sent to members Thursday, it appears O’Connell left the position weeks ago.

    According to state records, William O’Connell was replaced on April 15 as president, treasurer and director of Quarry Hills Associates Inc., the parent company of Granite Links Golf Course.

    O’Connell was replaced in the posts by his nephew, Thomas O’Connell of Hingham.

    Reached Thursday, Thomas O’Connell said he had “no comment at this time.” Neither Peter nor William O’Connell could be reached for comment.

    Walter Hannon, a former Quincy mayor who teamed with the O’Connells to develop Quarry Hills Golf Course, said he was “not at liberty to say anything” when asked for comment. He confirmed the letter was sent to golf club members.

    Hannon’s son, Walter Hannon III, is general manager of the club, which Golf Digest has deemed one of the top 100 golf courses in the country and one of the “Top Ten Best New Upscale Golf Courses in America.”

    The golf course is on leased municipal land that is owned partly by Quincy and partly by Milton. The communities are paid a percentage of club revenue every year as part of the lease agreement.

    Christopher Walker, spokesman for Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, said the city did not receive notification of the recent change in the club’s administration.

    William O’Connell, one of Quincy’s wealthiest and most influential developers, remains a listed officer in three other corporations, O’Connell Denver Properties Inc., Seaport Aviation Inc. and Seaview Real Estate Inc.

    Peter O’Connell’s letter called William “part of the tireless group who conceived of and followed through on the idea to convert fallow town lands into what has become a Top 100 Golf Course in America.

    “His personal investment to the development was substantial and critical to ensuring the successful completion of the project,” the letter reads. “We will always be grateful for his commitment.”

    • O'Connell Management Inc. 

    • Not sure if them: theoconnellcompanies.com/about-us/leadership/ // oconnells.com/our-history/ // bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=60988531 // linkedin.com/company/o%27connell-development-group-inc.

    • FOR SURE THEM: marinabaycorporatecenter.com/ // linkedin.com/company/marina-bay-management-co // business.thequincychamber.com/list/member/marina-bay-management-services-llc-quincy-3459 // manta.com/c/mhxd252/marina-bay-management-services-llc // granitelinksgolfclub.com/club/scripts/library/view_document.asp?NS=PG&DN=COURSES // bostonmagazine.com/marina-bay-management-granite-links-golf-club/ vvv

      • WILL O’CONNELL | 617.689.1900 | granitelinksgolfclub.com

      • Marina Bay Management is a Quincy-based real estate development and management firm with a portfolio that includes both residential and commercial properties including Granite Links Golf Club, Crossing Nines Outdoor Patio, The Tavern at Quarry Hills, The Chantey, Waterclub, The Range Bar & Grille, and Local 02045. Will O’Connell is the company’s Senior Vice President. Also pictured are his cousins, Jill O’Connell Nordin and Mackenzie O’Connell.

      • How was the company started? — “The first generation of owners are my two uncles from Quincy who began building multi-unit apartment and commercial office buildings. O’Connell Construction Co. was born. It eventually grew in size to warrant its own management company. Marina Bay Management manages and operates the entire family portfolio. MBMS is led by Tom O’Connell, one of the founders’ sons, and my first cousin.”

      • How do family members start out working at the family business? — “Any family member is welcome to get involved, but their participation happens from the bottom up in a fullyimmersed learning experience. Progression has to be earned by hard work and demonstrated ability. Tom and I, and many other siblings and cousins of G2, the second generation, know how fortunate we are to be afforded this opportunity. Family is expected to work harder than anyone else. We make this clear to our own children who are now beginning to have roles in the company.”

      • Why is the location of your business so important to the success of your business? — “The family’s heart will always be in Quincy; our roots are here. We take great pride in our real estate holdings and development of Marina Bay which is now a destination point. We’ve recently expanded to neighboring communities with the Range Bar & Grille in Hingham, and another new restaurant on Hull’s waterfront. Location is important; views, atmosphere, and continually reinvesting in real estate is key to our success.”

      • In addition to property development and management, you’re now also running restaurants? — “Yes, it’s a big growth area for the business and a particular focus for me. Restaurant operations started back when Marina Bay was being developed. I worked busing tables there when I was a kid and bartended through college. My uncle gave me a chance to start managing while I was in law school, teaching me the operational and financial side of things. My success is a testament to that early mentoring generosity, and to the current faith and confidence extended to me by my cousin Tom.”

      • Have you ever encountered any challenges with your family business? — “One of the biggest challenges with over 800 employees is finding staff members who share our family values. I’m proud to say our staff reflects the family culture of honesty, hard work, and loving what you’re doing. This is especially important for any business serving the public. We welcome the third generation of O’Connells (G3), which is predominantly female and is bringing innovation and creativity to the company.”

      • What’s the best advice that someone in your family offered you? — “Do the right thing. That’s something that my father still says to me.”

Lisa Kenney stand-in.

But I’ve digressed too far into the truth, the facts, and the witness reports… and I’ve completed neglected the original narrative—the claims that linked all these people together—first brought to me through the paranoid ramblings of a woman who once, and many times after, hijacked my attention while I tended-desk at a franchised gym.

Kenney v. Mass. State Police

• CASE INITIALLY FILED - 07/27/2016 (District Court, State of New Hampshire)

  • Kenney v. Massachusetts State Police et al

  • Plaintiff: Lisa A. Kenney

  • Defendant: Robert Cerullo, Charles F. Kane, William P. Kenney, Jr., Robert Long, David Manning, Massachusetts State Police, Richard McKeon and Kathleen M. Morrissey

  • Case Number: 1:2016cv00342

  • Filed: July 27, 2016

  • Court: New Hampshire District Court

  • Office: Concord Office

  • Presiding Judge: Joseph N. Laplante

  • Nature of Suit: Civil Rights: Other

  • Cause of Action: 18:241 Conspiracy Against Citizen Rights

  • Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff

  • ENDORSED ORDER deferring ruling on 3 Motion to Proceed in forma pauperis. Text of Order: The court shall defer ruling on the Plaintiff's request to proceed in forma pauperis to allow her additional time to complete section 3 questions, 3(a)(b)(c)(e) and (f), to which she needs to check either Yes or No in response to each question. So Ordered by Magistrate Judge Andrea K. Johnstone.(lml)

    • MOTION for Emergency Expedited Relief for Preliminary Injunction filed by Lisa A. Kenney. HEARING REQUESTED.

    • Request for Temporary restraining order without notice denied as outlined. So Ordered by Chief Judge Joseph N. Laplante. Motion referred to Andrea K. Johnstone.(cmp)

• CASE INITIALLY HEARD - 08/05/2016 (District Court, State of New Hampshire)

  • UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

  • Civil No. 16-cv-342-JL (D.N.H. Aug. 5, 2016)

  • Andrea K. Johnstone - United States Magistrate Judge

  • BACKGROUND

    • Ms. Kenney lived in Massachusetts until she moved to New Hampshire in 2013. Most of the allegations in the complaint relate to matters that occurred while Ms. Kenney lived in Massachusetts, and all of the defendants named by Ms. Kenney are Massachusetts residents.

    • Ms. Kenney alleges that defendant Massachusetts State Police ("MSP") Trooper William Kenney, is her ex-husband. They separated in 1998 and later divorced. Ms. Kenney alleges that her ex-husband's divorce attorney, Attorney Kathleen Morrissey, abused the Massachusetts probate court process to harass Ms. Kenney in 2010. Ms. Kenney further alleges that private investigators, including defendant Robert Long, watched her as recently as 2009 at her ex-husband's behest, in connection with an effort to interfere with her social security disability benefits and/or her efforts to increase the amount of child support she was receiving.

    • Ms. Kenney states that she had a romantic relationship with defendant MSP Sgt. Charles Kane in 2006-2007, that she dated MSP Trooper David Manning for a period of time in 2007, and that neither of those relationships ended amicably. She alleges that prior to 2010, Manning admitted that he had hacked her bank and email accounts and had access to her home and car. Ms. Kenney claims that, beginning in 2010, Kane, Manning, and/or her ex-husband, intensified their efforts to track her daily activities after she filed a motion in probate court in Massachusetts requesting an increase in child support, and after she filed police misconduct complaints asserting that those individuals were harassing her in and near her home, and through the internet.

    • Ms. Kenney specifically alleges that a third party, named "Darcy" or "Tippy," acting at Manning's behest, broke into her car and home in Massachusetts in 2010, took things, and put a surveillance camera into her bathroom. Ms. Kenney alleges that images of her using the bathroom have been published on the internet and are the topic of internet postings she attributes to defendants or their agents. She alleges that videos of her or other women engaged in sexual acts, taken without consent, were published on the internet in 2008 by the defendant police officers and their operatives.

    • Ms. Kenney alleges that since about 2010, she has filed numerous misconduct complaints about Manning's, Kane's, and her ex-husband's misuse of authority and surveillance techniques. Her complaints to MSP Col. Richard McKeon have not yielded corrective action, and she alleges her requests for internal MSP investigations have been ignored.

    • Ms. Kenney asserts that since she moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, in 2013, Manning arranged for different third parties, including her neighbor, "Angel" or "Angel Phillips," to place surveillance cameras in and around her property. She alleges one such camera mounted near Angel's door shows her coming in and out of her front door, and she has interpreted public internet posts to indicate that Manning and his agents plan to use a submersible camera to record her bathroom activities. Angel, she alleges, has stood outside her door, at Manning's behest, threatening to shoot and kill her, and uses epithets and slurs she recognizes as things Manning has said. Ms. Kenney states that a new drill hole has appeared near the shower in her apartment. As there is no camera in that hole, she claims the drill hole is simply there to harass her.

    • The Complaint includes six pages of bizarre or offensive internet postings from sources that appear to include "isitnormal.com" and "providence.craigslist.org." Ms. Kenney states that the photocopies are exhibits of a large collection of coded postings she has found on websites, including craigslist and eBay, which she believes have been authorized by Manning and other police operatives. All of the postings but one -- which lacks a date -- appear to have been downloaded in 2010; most are written by people who do not appear to have used real names; and none of them appears on its face to have been written by or to any party in this case, about any matter at issue here. Ms. Kenney alleges that in such postings, defendants and other unnamed police officers, using pseudonyms and a coded manner of writing decipherable by Ms. Kenney, have directed their agents on a daily basis to stalk, harass, threaten, and steal things from her, through public postings on craigslist.

    • In the complaint (doc. no. 1) and in a complaint addendum (doc. no. 6), plaintiff reproduces names of more than fifty eBay accounts, connected with addresses all over the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, that she claims are owned by defendants and other police officers. Plaintiff further alleges that she has collected 20 million eBay transactions associated with an unnumbered set of eBay account names she claims she was able to link with coworkers of her ex-husband because they bought things from her through eBay thirteen years ago. She asserts that these eBay accounts are used to target her for harassment through eBay postings, to transmit coded messages to paid operatives to stalk and harass her on a daily basis, and for "passing money" through PayPal without "selling anything." The account names reproduced or referenced in the complaint are comprised of letters, words, and numbers that Ms. Kenney believes relate to events in her life, to personal information about her and/or the defendants, or to epithets, slang, and slurs used in craigslist posts that she attributes to Manning.

  • IDENTIFICATION OF CLAIMS

    • Ms. Kenney asserts claims that her substantive due process rights, and her right not to be subjected to illegal searches and seizures by police officers, have been violated. Ms. Kenney alleges that these violations arise from defendants' use of illegal surveillance and other invasions of her privacy. Specifically, she claims that defendants, or their agents, have: threatened, stalked, and harassed her; orchestrated illegal sting operations; posted obscene images of her on the internet; derided her and her daughter on the internet; stolen from her; and vandalized and trespassed on her property in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She further asserts that defendants have retaliated against her for reporting misconduct, and that defendants misused court processes in Massachusetts. She seeks relief on behalf of herself and her daughter.

  • 1. Statute of Limitations

    • The majority of plaintiff's claims stem from events that happened before she moved to New Hampshire in 2013. Those claims are generally time-barred. (statute of limitations for tort actions in Massachusetts is three years, which starts to run when events have occurred that were reasonably likely to put plaintiff on notice that someone may have caused her injury). Plaintiff alleges facts establishing that she became aware of her injuries and/or the invasion of her rights prior to her move to New Hampshire, on or about the time when she alleges the she became the target of surveillance, harassment, stalking, retaliation, and posting of images and text on the internet. Accordingly, claims arising out of those events alleged to have occurred on or before July 26, 2013 (three years prior to Ms. Kenney's filing of this action on July 27, 2016), should be dismissed as precluded by the relevant three-year statute of limitations.

  • G. Failure to Investigate/Prosecute

    • Ms. Kenney asserts that defendant MSP Col. McKeon's failure to investigate and prosecute her claims has violated her federal constitutional rights. Plaintiff, however, does not have a protected interest in having alleged wrongdoers investigated or prosecuted.

  • H. Remaining Claims

    • Plaintiff has alleged that defendant Massachusetts State Police troopers and other police officers, and their agents, cloaked in anonymity, have used seemingly inconsequential and/or mean-spirited comments on the internet, with common or idiosyncratic typing errors and misspellings, to transmit coded messages through postings on publicly accessible internet sites, to tell paid miscreants to burglarize and threaten plaintiff, and to stalk, harass, and/or install a submersible camera in her shower or toilet. Such allegations, construed in the context of plaintiff's strained explanation of how she decodes those postings and identifies the authors and intended readers, are wholly incredible and appear to be the product of delusion.

    • [A] court may dismiss a claim as factually frivolous only if the facts alleged are "clearly baseless," a category encompassing allegations that are "fanciful," "fantastic," and "delusional." As those words suggest, a finding of factual frivolousness is appropriate when the facts alleged rise to the level of the irrational or the wholly incredible.

    • While this court has no reason to question the intensity and sincerity of plaintiff's self-described fear for her safety and security, plaintiff has failed to state any claim upon which this court may grant relief. Her complaint should be dismissed…

  • II. Preliminary Injunction

    • To obtain a preliminary injunction, a plaintiff must establish a likelihood of success on the merits, a likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, a showing that the balance of equities tips in plaintiff's favor, and a showing that an injunction is in the public interest. Glossip v. Gross, 135 S. Ct. 2726, 2736 (2015). "'[T]he sine qua non of this four-part inquiry is likelihood of success on the merits: if the moving party cannot demonstrate'" a likelihood of success on the merits, "'the remaining factors become matters of idle curiosity.'" // For the reasons discussed above, Ms. Kenney's filings in this matter fail to state any claim upon which relief can be granted by this court. Ms. Kenney has thus failed to  demonstrate a substantial likelihood of success on the merits, and for that reason, the motion for a preliminary injunction (doc. no. 2) should be denied.

  • Conclusion

    • For the foregoing reasons, the district judge should dismiss this action and should deny the motion for a preliminary injunction (doc. no. 2). Any objections to this Report and Recommendation must be filed within fourteen days of receipt of this notice. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(2). Failure to file objections within the specified time waives the right to appeal the district court's order.

• OBJECTION FILED - 08/12/2016 (District Court, State of New Hampshire)

  • OBJECTION to Report and Recommendation filed by Lisa A. Kenney.(cmp)

    • re: REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION re 1 Complaint and 2 Motion for Preliminary Injunction, recommending that the district judge should dismiss this action and deny the motion for preliminary injunction. Follow up on Objections to R&R on 8/22/2016. So Ordered by Magistrate Judge Andrea K. Johnstone.(jb)

• OBJECTION OBJECTED - 08/17/2016 (District Court, State of New Hampshire)

  • ORDER approving Report and Recommendation. Preliminary Injunction denied. Case dismissed. So Ordered by Chief Judge Joseph N. Laplante.(cmp)

  • Terminated: Aug 18, 2016

• FIRST APPEAL FILED - 09/07/2016 (District Court, State of New Hampshire)

  • NOTICE OF APPEAL as to Judgment by Lisa A. Kenney. File-stamped copy to be sent to parties/USCA by Clerks Office.

• FIRST APPEAL DENIED - 09/09/2016 (District Court, State of New Hampshire)

  • ENDORSED ORDER denying as moot Motion to Proceed In Forma Pauperis on Appeal. Text of Order: Movant's IFP status continues for appeal purposes without need for further motion. Motion denied as moot. So Ordered by Magistrate Judge Andrea K. Johnstone.(jb)

  • Clerk's Certificate transmitting Record on Appeal to US Court of Appeals, documents numbered 1-17, re Notice of Appeal. A copy of the Notice of Appeal mailed to all parties this date.(cmp)

• SECOND APPEAL FILED - 09/12/2016 (First Circuit Court of Appeals, 1/11)

  • Appellate Case Number: First Circuit Court of Appeals, Boston, MA, 16-2162 re Notice of Appeal filed by Lisa A. Kenney.(jb)

  • Case Filed: Sep 13, 2016

    • First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals

    • Case #: — 0:16-civil-02162

    • Type — civil / private / civil rights

    • Nature of Suit — 440 Civil Rights - Other Civil Rights

  • CIVIL CASE docketed. Notice of appeal (doc. #13) filed pro se by Appellant Lisa A. Kenney. 16-2162 . (CP) 

  • Defendants - Appellees

    MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE — Represented By

    • Joseph A. Foster 

      NH Attorney General's Office 

    • Maura T. Healey 

      MA Attorney General's Office 

      • Note: Healey is currently running for Governor of Massachusetts. I wonder how this has been spun-up into Kenney’s web of delusions; maybe contesting this appeal is what “earned her” the opportunity to run for office?

    RICHARD D. MCKEON

    DAVID MANNING

    CHARLES F. KANE

    WILLIAM P. KENNEY, JR.

    ROBERT LONG

    ROBERT CERULLO

    KATHLEEN M. MORRISSEY

  • Plaintiff - Appellant

    LISA A. KENNEY — Represented By

    • Lisa A. Kenney 

  • Terminated: Jun 20, 2017

• SECOND APPEAL DENIED - 06/21/2017 (First Circuit Court of Appeals, 1/11)

  • USCA JUDGMENT as to Notice of Appeal filed by Lisa A. Kenney. The judgment of the district court is affirmed.(jb)

• THIRD APPEAL FILED - 07/13/2017 (Supreme Court of the United States)

  • MANDATE of USCA as to Notice of Appeal and Judgment filed by Lisa A. Kenney. District court judgment affirmed.(jb)

  • (Priority Unknown. Activity Unknown. Outcome Unknown.)

Original document created 10/15/2018.