PAROLE BOARD PAYOUT PROBED
Backlash over cop safety as state pays wrongful termination settlement
Bay State taxpayers recently paid out $200,000 to a former Massachusetts’ parole board member who resigned following her controversial vote to free a violent convict that went on to gun down Woburn patrolman John Maguire in a 2010 botched department store robbery.
The wrongful termination settlement follows a brutal string of law enforcement line-of-duty deaths in Massachusetts — and a backlash against Beacon Hill for failing to protect cops.
“It’s frustrating. Those people messed up and we have to pay for it,” said Robert DeNapoli, a former Woburn police officer who was also shot in the line of duty. “Politics is politics, I guess.”
The state settled Pamela J. Lombardini’s 2013 lawsuit, which alleged that former Gov. Deval Patrick’s chief of staff and armed state troopers threatened and intimidated her into resigning after the shooting death of Maguire.
Lombardini and other parole board members had voted in 2009 to release Maguire’s shooter Dominic Cinelli, who was serving three life sentences for several violent crimes including blasting a security guard.
The lawsuit, which was settled out of court, alleged that William “Mo” Cowan, then Patrick's chief of staff, warned Lombardini and others “it would get ugly” if they didn't sign a resignation letter during a meeting on Jan. 13, 2011.
“Those people made a huge mistake,” said DeNapoli. “When other people make a mistake they get fired. He should not have been let out.”
Lombardini’s lawyer did not return calls for comment.
Two Massachusetts police officers were killed in the line of duty this year, prompting election-year promises to further protect officers on the job and punish cop killers.
A career criminal who’s faced more than 100 criminal charges is accused of killing Yarmouth K-9 Sgt. Sean Gannon in April.
Emanuel Lopes, 20, who was free on pretrial probation on a drug charge, is accused of killing Weymouth police Sgt. Michael Chesna.
Gov. Charlie Baker, who wears a blue Livestrongstyle bracelet with Sgt. Chesna’s name in honor of the fallen officer, renewed his support for the death penalty for cop killers on the campaign trail this year despite his failure to file death penalty legislation in his first term.
The Republican filed a bill last month aimed at keeping repeat violent offenders behind bars while they await trial, but recently admitted the bill is unlikely to pass this year. Baker said he’d refile the legislation in January if reelected.
‘It’s frustrating. Those people messed up and we have to pay for it. Politics is politics, I guess . ... When other people make a mistake they get fired. He should not have been let out.’ ROBER DENAPOLI, former Woburn police officer also shot in the line of duty