From here to hack heaven
Troopergate players got big money, mostly
Where are they now — all the hacks and payroll patriots involved in the granddaddy of all the State Police scandals, the attempted brooming of the DUI case of a hack judge’s daughter in Worcester County back in 2017.
Remember Ali Bibaud, former hack toll collector and low-level employee of the Worcester County DA’s office? Pulled over for DUI, she asked the young trooper who’d stopped her if he knew what she’d had to do to buy that bag of heroin in her car.
And then Ali Bibaud babbled that her father, Judge Tim Bibaud, who also used to have a hack job in the Worcester County DA’s office, was going to be very angry that she’d been lugged.
And so the sordid hack cover up began — a grotesquely corrupt conspiracy to broom the incident report that was so embarrassing to the hackerama, because it explained exactly how rotten and dastardly they all are.
Before the scheme was broken up, the entire hierarchy of the MSP had “retired,” and the scandal had also engulfed the entire Worcester County DA’s office, not to mention Gov. Charlie Parker’s Executive Office of Public Safety.
It seems so long ago now, but the scandal is back in the headlines: “DA, ex-head of State Police probably violated the law by ordering arrest report altered, panel says.”
The panel is the state Ethics Commission, and the fact that the Bibaud case is open again raises the question, what has become of all these sleazy Worcester Countyconnected hacks since 2017?
Surely they’ve paid the price for their misdeeds, right? Well, not quite. Let’s go down the list: Col. Richard McKeon, formerly assigned to the Worcester County DA’s office, forced to retire as colonel of MSP. Collecting state pension of $170,167 a year since 2017.
Dept. Supt. Francis Hughes,
MSP: retired, pension of $174,868 a year.
Lt. Col. Dan Risteen, MSP, appeared in “The Departed” with Hughes, retired a few months later, pension of $160,389 a year.
Capt. Susan Anderson, MSP, on duty on the shift when the Bibaud incident report was turned in: retired, pension of $140,339 a year.
Col. Kerry Gilpin, McKeon’s successor, settled the federal lawsuit of the honest state trooper with a $35,000 payment and also presided over a number of other State Police scandals, retired, pension of $171,462 a year.
Joe Early, Jr., Worcester County DA, son of a congressman, who admittedly tried to broom the Bibaud arrest report. He had to pay honest state trooper $5,000 settlement, and is now fighting the Ethics Commission allegation that he, McKeon and Anderson violated the state’s conflict-of-interest law. Despite the scandal, Early has since been re-elected with 69% of the vote, and is still on the state payroll, $191,000 a year.
First Assistant DA Jeff
Travers, son of a state judge, also charged with violating the state’s conflict-of-interest law, given the actual task of making the Bibaud case disappear, still on the DA’s payroll, $182,000 a year.
Judge Tim Bibaud, who all the prosecutors and state cops are charged with conspiring to help (he was on the Worcester DA’s payroll for 28 years, where he met most of the other bad actors), still on the Dudley District Court, $184,694 a year.
(By the way, in case you didn’t think the Dudley courthouse was hacked up enough, the new clerk-magistrate is Jen Caissie, former governor’s councilor from Worcester and BFF of Lt. Gov. Karyn “Pay to Play” Polito. After her appointment by Tall Deval, Caissie makes $155,084 a year.)
Jennifer Quealley, another former employee of the Worcester DA’s office, who at the Executive Office of Public Safety was in charge of “provid(ing) strategic leadership to the … State Police” during this and most of the subsequent MSP scandals. Has since been appointed to a judgeship by Gov. Parker, to whom she and her husband donated $3,350. Now on the state payroll for $184,494 a year.
Daniel Bennett, secretary of Public Safety during the scandal and yet another former Worcester County coat holder, retired with pension of $52,569 a year. (Bennett must be thinking, where did I go wrong?)
Judge David Locke, to whom the Bibaud case was reassigned, is the brother of another judge, the son of a state senator and the brother of a former state rep. Locke remains on the state payroll for $184,694.
To sum up his role: Judge Locke, who is the brother of Judge Locke, approved the motion by Judge Travers’ son to in effect cover up the public humiliation of Judge Bibaud’s daughter.
Tom Turco, as employee of the scandal-ridden Probation
Department, worked in the same Worcester County courthouses with all of the above. After the post-Bibaud house cleaning of the other Worcester hacks at the Executive Office of Public Safety, was appointed by Tall Deval to Continue the Tradition at EOPS. Current salary: $170,406 a year.
The original question was, Where are they now? Since it’s the hackerama, you probably already knew the answer going in.
Where are they now? They’ve all died and gone to heaven.