A routine coverup blew up into big news in Massachusetts recently. State Police arrested a woman for driving drunk and under the influence of the heroin she had in the car. She said she traded sex for drugs. The officers put that confession in their report.
She also said daddy would be furious. Daddy is a district court judge.
According to Howie Carr (no relation), who knows how these things work, the judge himself wouldn’t have made the call himself. He may have said something like “will no one rid me of this meddlesome officer?” His friends may have known what to do without prompting. Either way, a prosecutor called the Colonel of State Police who called a Major who told the arresting officers that this judge’s daugher was most definitely not a whore or drug abuser and they would be disciplined if they did not falsify the arrest report.
This happens all the time. What’s different is the officers who had been reprimanded for being honest sued. The Boston Globe ran the story and it blew up.
The lights went on and the roaches started scattering. The top two State Police officers retired under pressure with the promise of a generous pension. Three investigations are ongoing.
Usually police officers know not to write anything incriminating about people who are above the law. If a police officer drives with a BAC of 0.18% and kills two women, his fellow officers say he was sober. If a state senator is obviously drunk after crashing into somebody, he gets a ride home. Probably happens every day somewhere in the state.
What also happens all the time is police include embarrassing details in their reports after arresting civilians. What the driver said and did is relevant to the issue of impairment and consciousness of guilt. She admitted trading sex for heroin. That’s relevant to the drug charges. Offering a sex act to get out of a ticket shows consciousness of guilt. The drug recognition officer’s observations ordered removed from the report — how could those possibly not be relevant to a charge of drugged driving?
I don’t know these officers’ reputations. They may be honest cops who would arrest a VIP rather than offering a ride home. They may have simply made a mistake about who counted as a VIP. They got a reprimand in their file for not knowing when the truth hurts.
On his way out, Colonel McKeon said he gave similar orders “more times than I can remember.” I believe him.
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