Posted on 02/16/2010 2:33:57 AM PST by outpostinmass2
U.S. Rep. and former Norfolk District Attorney William Delahunt yesterday backed off earlier claims he didn’t recall the 1986 shooting death of Amy Bishop’s brother, with a top aide now saying police downplayed the need for further investigation.
Mark Forest, Delahunt’s chief of staff, said both state and local police told the former top prosecutor they believed Amy Bishop, then 20, had accidentally blasted her 18-year-old brother, Seth, with their father’s shotgun.
“They pretty much found the death was accidental and there was no need for further action,” Forest told the Herald.
But Republican Joe Malone, a former state treasurer who is strongly considering a run against Delahunt, demanded a full accounting about how he handled the investigation into the professor now accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama at Huntsville.
“He owes a complete explanation to the people of Massachusetts and the families of those murdered in Alabama,” Malone said.
Delahunt’s spokesman, Forest, shot back.
“Getting advice on credible statements from Joe Malone is like getting investment advice from Bernie Madoff,” he said. “It is sad that in the midst of a national tragedy like this, we have a long-time politician trying to score cheap political points.”
Bishop, now a 44-year-old neurobiology professor, allegedly murdered three colleagues and wounded three others at a faculty meeting in a shooting rampage apparently fueled by her anger over being denied tenure.
Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier has alleged the probe into Seth Bishop’s death was politically derailed by the town’s former top cop, John Polio.
Frazier has said cops who arrested Bishop at the time told him she shot her brother during an argument, but that Polio ordered those cops to let her go. Polio has denied that charge.
Bishop’s actions after the shooting have raised questions about the handling of the case.
Bishop ran from her parents’ Victorian manse with the shotgun and pointed it at a passing car in an attempt to get the driver to stop, according to Frazier, who said his information came from cops who arrested Bishop in 1986.
The Herald reported yesterday that Bishop then held the gun to the chest of an auto body worker at the now-defunct Dave Dinger’s in Braintree and demanded a getaway car, according to the former worker, Thomas Pettigrew, 45.
Braintree cops caught up with Bishop nearby, according to Frazier and Pettigrew. But there is no mention of Bishop’s arrest in a six-page report written by Trooper Brian Howe, a former member of Delahunt’s state police squad. Howe could not be reached
The Braintree police chief sparked a firestorm yesterday over the case of the rampaging science professor arrested for killing three colleagues in Alabama on Friday, alleging the woman was freed decades ago after a politically derailed investigation into her fatal shooting of her own brother.
“I don’t want to use the word ‘coverup.’ I don’t know what the thought process was at the time,” said Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier yesterday at an explosive press conference, adding later, “It reflects poorly on the department. This would not happen in this day and age.”
On Dec. 6, 1986, Frazier said, then-20-year-old Amy Bishop blasted her brother, Seth Bishop, 18 - described in newspaper reports at the time as a talented violinist and science student - with a shotgun during an argument, fled the family’s Victorian manse and was later arrested by cops at gunpoint.
That, Frazier said, is where the investigation of the case stopped.
However, the Norfolk district attorney’s office noted last night, state police did investigate the shooting. Their records back up the longstanding version of events - that the shooting was accidental. Bishop’s arrest is never mentioned in the state police report, nor is the alleged argument with her brother.
Frazier said he used interviews with retired Braintree cops to piece together what happened 23 years ago. He has requested a sit-down with the DA’s office regarding the case.
According to Frazier, then-Chief John Polio ordered cops to release Bishop - whose mother, Judith Bishop, Frazier said was a public official sitting on the Personnel Committee.
“I spoke with the retired deputy chief who was . . . responsible for booking Ms. Bishop. He said he had started the process when he received a call from then-Police Chief John Polio or possibly from a captain on Chief Polio’s behalf,” Frazier said.
“He was instructed to stop the booking process. At some point Ms. Bishop was turned over to her mother and they left the building via a rear exit. . . . The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers.”
No one answered the door yesterday at the Ipswich home of Bishop’s parents.
Interviewed at his Braintree home, Polio yesterday said the shooting was accidental and that then-D.A. William Delahunt had investigated and decided not to file charges.
“There was absolutely no coverup at all,” he said. “We did everything that was right under the circumstances.”
Delahunt, now a congressman, yesterday said in a telephone interview that he did not recall the case.
Bishop had been fighting a tenure denial at the University of Alabama in Huntsville when, police say, she opened fire Friday in a room of her colleagues from the university’s biology department.
Bishop’s husband, James Anderson, told the Herald he did not know much about the 1986 Braintree shooting or his wife’s relationship with her brother.
“Everybody described her as gentle,” he said
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1232688&srvc=home&position=comment
Sad, but true. I hope he withdraws and leaves the field open for Jeff Perry.
This reminds me of the episode of Law and Order where the older cop fessed up to brooming a murder investigation of the son of a prominent family twenty years earlier.
I wonder what Delahunt got in the deal? Even if Delahun thought the shooting was accidental the armed hold-up and attempted robbery of an auto after the shooting incident certainly was not. This thing stinks to high heaven.
“Officer Ronald Solimini informed me that he wrote the report and said that I wouldn’t find it as it has been missing from the files for over 20 years. He said that former Police Chief Edward Flynn had looked for the report and that it was missing. He believes this was in 1988.”
Officer Solimini recalled the incident as follows: He said he remembers that Ms. Bishop fired a round from a pump action shotgun into the wall of her bedroom. She had a fight with her brother and shot him, which caused his death. She fired a third round from the shotgun into the ceiling as she exited the home. She fled down the street with the shotgun in her hand. At one point she allegedly pointed the shotgun at a motor vehicle in an attempt to get the driver to stop. Officer Solimini found her behind a business on Washington Street. Officer Timothy Murphy was able to take control of the suspect at gunpoint and seized the shotgun. Ms. Bishop was subsequently handcuffed and transported to the police station under arrest.”
“Officer Solimini informed me that before the booking process was completed Ms. Bishop was released from custody without being charged.”
“I (Chief Frazier) spoke with the retired Deputy Chief who was then a Lieutenant and was responsible for booking Ms. Bishop. He said he had started the process when he received a phone call he believes was from then Police Chief John Polio or possibly from a captain on Chief Polio’s behalf. He was instructed to stop the booking process. At some point Ms. Bishop was turned over to her mother and they left the building via a rear exit.”
Braintree Police Lieutenant Karen MacAleese was a high school classmate and confirmed from photographs that the suspect is the same Amy Bishop who lived in Braintree.
“I was not on duty at the time of the incident, but I recall how frustrated the members of the department were over the release of Ms. Bishop. It was a difficult time for the department as there had been three (3) shooting incidents within a short timeframe. The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.”
“It is troubling that this incident has come to light. I can assure you that the members of the Braintree Police Department maintain the highest of integrity. Since it was discovered this morning that the report is missing, I have been in contact with Mayor Joseph Sullivan. Mayor Sullivan and I have spoken with District Attorney William Keating and we will be meeting with him next week to discuss this situation. The Mayor supports a full review of this matter and agrees that we want to know where the records are
Delehunt will be the next RAT to “retire to spend more time with his family”.
The comment section has been turned off at the Boston Globe site pertaining to this story. The Globe knows this is bad for Democrat Bill Delahunt and is attempting to fix the leaks.
Covering up a murder and armed high jacking. He could be retiring to a prison cell. Delahunt was a real piece of work when he was D.A. He used to drive around in a Porsche that was confiscated during a drug bust. The FBI had to tell him that it wasn’t his car to keep. He also use to date a 19 year old bank teller after he got divorced in 1996.
He and his State Police detail may have been deferring to the local police chief. The local police chief may not have gotten a phone call from a member of the local police personnel board and made a bad decision.
My first cousin ended his career in the NYPD assigned to the Manhattan DA’s murder squad. I’d like to see what he thinks of this.
Delahunt begins spinning madly like a Tazmanian dust devil on meth.
Looks good on him. He’ll be resigning, not retiring before this is all over. That’s what I predict.
Good riddance to the bum.
..... I doubt, though, that Delahunt will lose any sleep over the three people who were killed by Bishop in her latest little tantrum.
These are the people we select to lead us? How can it be?
Delahunt won his seat on a recount. I remember they found some “hanging chads” to bring him to victory.
“Blame the little people” To Democrats cops are the little people. They are so predictable.
It is the D.A. who decides to bring a case to court not the police. Something is up with this case bigtime.
Well, it was an accidental armed robbery. We have that a lot here in Massachusetts.
Here comes the stench of a really nasty cover up...the police report is “missing”, but the cops who were on the scene are still around.
From the Boston Globe comments section:
“ Wong-Way wrote:
Hey guys, I am an intellectual elite and I typically make fun of Alabama. They are definitely not as educated as we are here and they should not be victimizing this poor woman who has been tormented her entire life.
Us Massachusetts elite liberals did it correctly when we failed to prosecute this woman. She was obviously a victim of something. Maybe a troubled childhood? Maybe if you ask Martha Coakley, she can prove without a doubt that there was a man behind her evil streak back when she was 21? There was certainly a man behind it, as all of the academic studies that have been peer reviewed certainly say that women are typically the victims and a man is usually behind their bad behavior. She was probably sexually abused by her father.
This is just another story about how the back country bumpkins that are clearly not educated (I do not consider the University of Alabama at Huntsville even worthy of providing a progressive and well rounded education to anybody) and they were obviously sexist in not giving this poor woman tenure. My vast academic credentials from elite Northeast colleges and universities (I have a few degrees in various subjects, so I am definitely qualified to speak to this subject) tell me that she was victimized by her peers and passed over for promotions because she was a closeted lesbian female. It also tells me that because she was most likely abused by her father and other male figures in her life growing up, it filled her with rage.
We should be helping her, as Bill Delahunt tried to do back in the 1980’s. He is a very knowledgeable and progressive man that saw the victimhood and knew that it would be wrong to prosecute her for something that was clearly not her fault.
The back country bumpkins that are uneducated that live in Alabama will now assassinate this poor, lost soul because of her madness which was definitely drawn out by institutional sexism propagated by white men that were most likely in the Ku Klux Klan and by her own victimhood from most likely being molested by her father.
These intellectual inferiors will put her to death instead of doing the right thing that us superior progressive elites would do, which is get her help, put her up in an institutional program to get her better and rehabilitate her so she’s a functioning part of society. Maybe then she can become the head of the Diversity department at Wellesley or Harvard and can teach about how she struggled against the ills of the white man on a daily basis.
Once again, thanks for listening. I am a highly educated progressive Massachusetts liberal elite, therefore my views are indisputable, as they are backed up by my many degrees, which makes me smarter than most of you.
2/16/2010 9:07 AM EST “
On another note, I kinda feel sorry for her parents, that they have to go through this again... yet... it is their fault they covered up the crime for her back then, so they have to pay the price now.
Seth's blood is crying for justice. Think Cain and Able.
If the police in MA caught me with a gun, and I didn’t have an FID card and a license to carry, I would be arrested and tried.
If I had held a man at gunpoint, demanding a getaway car, I would be arrested and tried.
If I had shot my brother, whether or not I killed him, I would be arrested and tried.
This does stink to high heaven. I hope someone gets to the bottom of it, but I’m not holding my breath. Those who participated in the cover-up should be prosecuted, IMO.
You'd know better than me but that doesn't mean Malone (and everyone else) shouldn't be holding Delahunt's feet to the fire.
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