EVER CLOSER TO BAKER
Gov’s handling of report-altering scandal faulted by unions, lawyers
Gov. Charlie Baker has been thrust in the direct line of fire in the furor over allegations by two state troopers that they were ordered to alter their police report about the arrest of a judge’s daughter.
Baker’s handling of the scandal and his explanation of why his two top state police commanders suddenly resigned has come under question by police union officials and the attorney representing the two troopers.
“They are trying to sweep it under the rug,” said Lenny Kesten, attorney for the troopers who were ordered to change their reports and are now suing the state police. “I suggest the governor, the attorney general owe it to the public to find out what happened.”
The state police scandal is one of the most serious crises Baker has faced in his first term, and there’s no sign that it’s close to an end.
The Republican governor quietly swore in a new state police colonel yesterday away from the glare of the media spotlight, then claimed the hasty shakeup had nothing to do with the widening scandal. That came hours after the resignation of Deputy Supt. Francis Hughes, second in command to Col. Richard McKeon, who quit last week.
Baker last week quickly closed his own office’s review of the allegations by the troopers, concluding McKeon was responsible for ordering the revision of the police arrest report of Alli Bibaud, the daughter of a district court judge. McKeon ordered the troopers to delete salacious details about the arrest, including a statement by the suspect offering sexual favors.
But Baker’s office is refusing to release a report about the internal review of the case and what the investigation found.
The governor claims he swore in his new state police Colonel, Kerry Gilpin, in private yesterday because he had a “crazy” schedule and didn’t have time for a public ceremony.
Baker did make himself available for questions, then suggested that altering police reports was routine — a suggestion that union officials reject.
“The notion that anything about this is routine is laughable,” Kesten said. “I ask the governor that he gives me 15 minutes of his time ... so he can understand that whoever’s telling him this is misleading him.”
One of the biggest questions swirling around the scandal is whether it reaches into Baker’s Cabinet.
Baker’s public safety secretary, Daniel Bennett, was named in one of the troopers’ lawsuits and in a complaint by the State Police Association, though Baker says he is convinced Bennett was not involved.
“I stand 100 percent behind Secretary Bennett,” Baker said yesterday.
But according to the State Police Association complaint requesting an internal investigation, a state police major told one of the troopers that the order to alter the reports came “from the top” — naming Bennett and others.
“Politics are what they are,” the major told the trooper, according to the union complaint.
The complaint alleges that McKeon and other top commanders “engaged in a conspiracy” to force the troopers to revise the arrest report.
The scandal is one of the most serious crises Baker has faced.