AG eyes names in Rosenberg probe
Attorney General Maura Healey’s office is pursuing a court order to obtain the names of people who cooperated with the Senate Committee on Ethics’ investigation into former Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg under the belief their identities would never be known — but prosecutors could be in for a fight.
“We are in the process of reviewing the motion. Our review will be predicated on maintaining the promise made to witnesses that we will preserve their confidentiality to the fullest extent possible. The Senate investigation was built on an ideal of privacy for those witnesses who came forward. We continue to stand by that ideal,” Senate President Harriette L. Chandler said.
A hearing to debate the motion is scheduled for July 24 in Suffolk Superior Court.
Sen. Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport), chairman of the Committee on Ethics, said, “Throughout the process, the Committee reaffirmed and upheld its commitment to protecting the confidentiality of victims and witnesses. As the Senate President stated, we are committed to continuing to protect their privacy to the fullest extent possible.”
The names assistant Attorney General Jennifer L. Snook and special assistant Attorney General Ian Polumbaum seek include “information regarding additional persons who alleged that they were sexually assaulted or harassed” by Rosenberg’s husband, Bryon Hefner, according to court documents filed yesterday.
Hefner, 31, waived his appearance at a pretrial conference yesterday. His attorney Tracy Miner said he is out of state at a treatment facility, but declined to elaborate on the program with reporters.
Hefner, the onetime public relations flack, is accused by a grand jury of five counts of indecent assault and battery, one count of open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior and four counts of dissemination of images of a nude or partially nude person involving four men already known to the commonwealth.
The Senate Committee on Ethics and special investigator Hogan Lovells, an international law firm with offices in Boston, decreed they would never disclose to anyone the names of any cooperating Senate members, victims, witnesses or subpoena recipients without their consent. Snook acknowledges in an affidavit, “The materials sought are not procurable ... absent an order from this Court.”
A joint pretrial report submitted yesterday by the lawyers states Hefner’s case “is not likely” to be resolved by a plea agreement.
Rosenberg, 68, an Amherst Democrat, retired last month amid his husband’s legal woes after serving in the Legislature for nearly three decades. One of Hefner’s conditions of release is that he’s banned from the State House.