Share Senate scandal report
With the embers of the Bryon Hefner scandal still smoldering, it is important we gather as much information on his misdeeds on Beacon Hill as we can.
People and time have a way of sanitizing the past, especially when legacies are at stake. We must act now.
This is why we support Attorney General Maura Healey’s efforts to obtain records pertaining to the Senate investigation into former Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg, thenspouse of Hefner. As reported by the Boston Herald’s Laurel Sweet, prosecutors are seeking written, recorded or adopted statements of anyone who was interviewed and all reports that describe statements of persons interviewed.
Hefner 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.
In an affidavit, Assistant Attorney General Jennifer L. Snook, indicated that the Ethics Committee report “contains information regarding additional persons who alleged that they were sexually assaulted or harassed by the defendant.”
What we have already seen in the report is damning.
In it, we learned that Hefner “routinely expressed in graphic terms sexual interest in members of the Senate and Senate staff.” He also used racial epithets against a Senate staffer and had downloaded and texted images of nude men.
Further, the report reads, “Hefner sexually harassed multiple individuals who worked in the Senate. Specifically, Senate employees reported that Hefner made unwanted sexual advances towards them in Senate related social settings and other social settings outside the Senate. They also reported that Hefner engaged in unwanted touching and sent text messages containing sexually explicit material or sexual innuendo.”
The accounts of any additional victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault should receive proper treatment from the legal system and as much of this information as possible should be made public.
We need to know the depths of the behavior and criminality of Bryon Hefner to fully realize the scope of Stan Rosenberg’s own behavior. What we already know is that Rosenberg was aware and present for some of it.
A memorable part of the report dealt with one such event in Cambridge in which Rosenberg and another man picked up Hefner in an automobile. “Hefner appeared to be visibly intoxicated when he entered the car. He repeatedly screamed at the witness about the route the witness was taking to the Fenway and repeatedly insulted the witness. Rosenberg and the staff member attempted to calm Hefner, who in turn screamed at them . ... Neither Senator Rosenberg nor the staff member could calm Hefner down. At one point Hefner tried to convince a Cambridge police officer to arrest Senator Rosenberg, but the staff member intervened and the officer left the scene.”
The Report of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Concerning the Conduct of Senator Stanley C. Rosenberg is quite a read. It tells the story of wanton intimidation, harassment and assault at the hands of a troubled man who knew how to manipulate those around him. Hefner’s firewall was all the power and prestige of the Massachusetts state Senate.
Though Stanley Rosenberg is gone and Bryon Hefner “is out of state at a treatment facility,” according to his attorney, the damage they have done to the state Senate lingers. We shall see what current Senate President Harriette L. Chandler decides to do to rehabilitate the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court.
In the meantime we need all the facts and information about this recent dark period flushed out.
Let the legal process go where it needs to.
When we come to a point where we can tell this entire story. then we will have created for the Senate an ethical map by which to navigate in such matters.