For staties, controversies piling up
The Massachusetts State Police — now dealing with a discrimination investigation — is juggling multiple controversies.
The department is still dealing with the fallout from the Troopergate scandal, where revisions allegedly were ordered made to a police report to remove lurid details surrounding the arrest of a judge’s daughter.
Former Essex District Attorney Kevin Burke is leading a probe into the alleged incident. Col. Richard McKeon retired in November after he was hit with accusations that he ordered a trooper to scrub embarrassing information from the report.
In the federal suit, two troopers allege law enforcement used
“threats, intimidation, and coercion” in an attempt to force them to illegally alter or destroy public, court and police records regarding the October drug arrest of Alli Bibaud, a state judge’s daughter.
Meanwhile, state police have asked Attorney General Maura Healey’s office to help them investigate no-show assignments in which troopers were paid but failed to report for duty, state police said.
“An internal State Police audit of AIRE (Accident Injury Reduction Effort) patrol shifts assigned to officers within Troop E found evidence that shifts assigned were not always worked and that troopers were still paid despite not having shown up for their shift,” state police wrote.
State police said they launched an internal investigation into one trooper a year ago, and that remains pending.
And, state police say, a trooper in that unit has been suspended without pay since April.