Posted on 02/24/2007 11:12:45 PM PST by conservative in nyc
A district attorney's investigation has found there was no evidence a local police officer posted unflattering and threatening remarks about a selectman on an Internet blog, and now the police union is demanding the resignation of Selectwoman Jennifer Firth for pointing the finger in their direction.
Saying the police department's reputation was tarnished, the police union demanded Wednesday that Firth resign for alleging at a Feb. 6 selectmen's meeting that a town police officer threatened online to kill a selectman two years ago.
The Norfolk County District Attorney's Office found no evidence after a two-week investigation that the freerepublic.com blog posting Firth cited constituted a threat against Gregory Pazurchek, who was seeking re-election but lost to George Labonte in April 2005.
Also, "there is no basis, in fact, that the author of the said cited entry is (or was) a Wrentham Police Officer," First Assistant District Attorney Dennis C. Mahoney wrote in his report Tuesday.
The Wrentham Police Association now wants Firth off the board for making what it called a "false and scurrilous allegation."
The union is exploring its options if Firth declines to leave, said Detective Sgt. William McGrath, the union president.
If a town police officer made such a charge on local cable TV, McGrath said, "we'd be fired. It's that simple."
"Selectman Firth's willingness to make false criminal accusations in public that tarnish the reputations of the Wrentham Police Department and the police officers who serve the Town of Wrentham make her unfit to hold public office," the union said in a statement. "Furthermore, Ms. Firth's stated belief that political activity by police officers or any town employees should result in the employee being withheld from promotion only strengthens our resolve."
"I never said that," Firth said of the latter charge.
Firth maintained two weeks ago and again on Wednesday that she didn't want the matter discussed in open session.
Public discussion was requested by Selectman Richard Dion, who resigned later in the meeting, Firth said.
"It was requested to be put in open session by Chief Collamati as well," Firth said of Police Chief Joseph Collamati Jr. "I didn't want it put in open session."
Firth, who two weeks ago questioned the credibility of blogs and noted it is difficult to confirm the author of postings, attributed the call for her resignation to politics.
"It is a funny coincidence it just happens to be on the three-year cycle the contract is up and the budget is about to be discussed," Firth said. "I think it is an attempt to discredit me and try to remove me from the negotiating process."
Collamati had requested the independent investigation by the district attorney's office after Firth raised the allegation during the selectmen's meeting.
Wednesday, Collamati called for Firth to recuse herself from votes on police matters.
"Quite frankly, going forward, I have some concerns about Jennifer having input on matters involving the police department," Collamati said. "I'm very concerned about her being biased toward the police department."
The postings on freerepublic.com were from Feb. 23 to April 9, 2005, according to a transcript Collamati provided to The Sun Chronicle.
In the first transcript, replete with grammatical errors and misspelled words, a poster named "Little Bill" said "Guinnessboy, a mad active FReeper, is running a Campaign for his future Father in Law for Chairman of the Board of Selectman in a Mass Town, against a disgusting rat. He needs advice from those FReepers that have run for local office, winners and loosers, winning tactics and misteaks made."
The same day, a poster named "PAR35," replied, "Winning tactic ... Kill your opponent."
Two later postings stated, "The election is on April 4th. The candidate's name is George A. Labonte, running for town selectman in Wrentham. He is running as an independent, just so you know the incumbant is Greg Pazurchek who is backed by the Wrentham Citizens Alliance (code name for democrat bleeding hearts)."
Labonte has a relative who is a police officer.
The transcript identifies "Guinessboy" as Ronald Groves.
Firth told a state police investigator this month that "two years ago, she might have heard that Ronald Groves was a police officer then, but she doesn't know for sure," according to the district attorney's report.
When the trooper asked Firth why she said a police officer made the threats, "she said that was the rumor."
"Ms. Firth said somebody told her that, but she couldn't remember who it was. Ms. Firth stated she thinks she heard the rumor on the street," the report states.
The selectwoman said she is actually pleased the police department was cleared.
"That is very good news," Firth said of the DA's finding.
Oh that's believable....
I still don't understand what in the hell this is all about.
Well, that settles it then.
Oh that's believable....
I wonder if Ms. Firth knows what slander is. Maybe people on the street enjoy slandering and denigrating others.
I only posted the thread, but my FRiend guinnessboy, has Aces and Trumps.
The FR rule not to threaten a person or urge the murder of someone is a good one. A public threat can come back and bite you.
On the other hand, threats to kill Osama, Chavez, or Islamofascists is probably okay but I could be wrong.
I haven't seen an FR rule about posting a threat to kill killers.
LB initiated a post asking for help with advice & volunteers for the campaign I was running.
I have the entire thread.
Phantom Lord, I'm assuming, was using a tongue in cheek comment, not a threat of harm. Basically, what he was saying in fewer words is that its a lost cause to run a candidate in MA that is a conservative, a republican or even a moderate independent for that matter.
I didnt even chime in to the post until #40 or so in which I explained details about the election, the candidates, and I called the Wrentham Citizens Allaince the "democrat bleeding hearts". I will not retract that statement, basically because I believe it to be true, they are the town NIMBYS. They are anti business. The townsfolk pretty much know this.
Little Bill called the candidate in the beginning a rat, short for DemocRAT, LB didnt even know what town or players were involved in the beginning.
In the midst of the campaign TWO YEARS AGO, Greg (opponent candidate) came accross the original post. I'm assuming that their side were as busy as us and did not do a full analysis of the post, in fact at that time TWO YEARS AGO, the thread was shown to the police and it died on the spot TWO YEARS AGO.
Greg even congratulated us (me) for our victory by shaking my hand and saying congratulations "guinnessboy", I figured I'd give him that one, that it was part of the game.
The original post was taken down from FR 2 YRS AGO.
fast forward to today.
On the original thread that was taken down there were some lampooning posts of the selectmen that were put on the later part of the thread about post #53 or so. It's just name calling pretty much, nothing to lose sleep over, and it was posted by handles that I don't recognize.
The importance of how the police are pulled into all this is:
and this is public knowledge:
The Cheif Colamatti is retiring, they are looking for a successor as far as I see it.
There is an officer with the first name William. Firth and whoever she consults with, were convinced that the William on the force is Little Bill.
This whole thing basically is based on insinuations, innuendos, allegations and hysteria.
So now according to the current cheif the police's image has been sullied. All because those in possession of the original thread that must have figured that it could be used as an agenda tool maybe out of revenge of election defeat 2 YRS AGO (who knows).........
Anyhow, even to this point, when this all dredged up, they continued to not do their homework, both sides are completely lazy and it shows.
They pretty much see it that Little Bill and Guinnessboy wrote EVERY SINGLE POST on the original thread.
Nothing is further from the truth, I've got the whole thread in print here. In fact, there really wasnt much of anything derogatory coming from myself or LB other than opinion, which really wasnt that inflamatory.
Nothing to make them want to say "I'm going home and taking my ball with me".......
Now she finds herself in a mix with the police union because she didnt do her homework.
they never bothered to ask, hey who exactly is guinnessboy and little bill.
The police station is literally 100 paces behind town hall, think in the era of communication that someone could have walked, called on a landline, cell phone or sent an email to ask, hey cheif, you ever had an officer Ronald Groves?
Maybe ask the current Selectman how this whold freerepublic post relates to him? I mean there has to be some kind of communication going on while they are sitting together? This can all come up in small talk.
To sum it up, In my opinion, the absolute truth is not what is wanted here by her/them. They wanted to shoot first and ask questions later. That's why there are so many errors in the Sun Chronicle and Firth's testimony because nobody is doing their homework. Except the DA who cleared the police, and now the police union is asking, where's the beef?
There was no specific threat made against anyone. It even sounds like the actual opponent wasn't named at the time PAR35 or Phantom Lord made that comment. And "kill your opponent" can be taken literally or figuratively (i.e. pile on all the negative stuff you have and bury him). No one ever suggested putting a bullet through a particular person's head to get rid of him.
That doesn't sound like a comment that I would have made - I'm going to dig out the original thread and see the context.
At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if the transcript was tampered with. I might need to call the DA next week to find out if I have been libeled in this story, either by the police chief or the reporters.
Par35, I'll take a look at the original to see if you even posted on it.....
I did comment. Someone else dug it out. My comment was something along the lines of "Run on local issues."
Defamation suits are a pain, but I can't leave something like this out there. The cheapest course of action for the paper would be to print a quick retraction.
I'm busy for the next couple of weeks, but if they don't get it retracted before then, I'll have to follow up to find out if the paper was misled, in which case I'm sure they will want to set the issue straight, or if they just decided to lie about me for the fun of it.
Par35 et al, here's the latest from the Boston Globe, Firth's comment might give some insight as to why Par35 was mentioned and not phantomlord.....at any rate, phantomlord's comment came well before anyone knew where or when the campaign was involved.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/02/25/threat_accusation_spurs_police_protest/
This whole thing has really blown up in the face of the accusers.....
The district attorney's report portrays Firth as confused over who wrote the post. "Oh, I don't know how to read these things anyway," she was quoted as telling investigators.
Par you were mentioned by the Sun Chronicle, they have proven themselves hacks every step of the way.
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