HopNews
To the editor:
On Monday, the trial for John “Jay” Porter will begin in Middlesex County Court in Waltham. The retired Hopkinton Deputy Police Chief will go on trial on three charges of child rape.
A week from Monday, Hopkinton will hold its town elections.
I have seen a lot of letters to the editor in both HopNews and The Independent encouraging Hopkinton residents to vote for Shahidul Mannan.
I strongly urge you not to cast your ballot for Mr. Mannan.
Yes, as the letters point out, Mr. Mannan has done a lot for this town. But at a critical inflection point in this town’s history, Mr. Mannan – who could have leveraged his considerable expertise as a healthcare data executive to protect the Town – failed spectacularly.
More importantly, he failed the accuser in this child rape case – along with several other appointed and elected town officials as well as the town’s PR and legal firms.
And they all failed former Hopkinton Police Sgt. Tim Brennan – a dedicated law enforcement officer stuck in a tough spot in this sad saga – with his dismissal from the force.
Please don’t forget this sequence of events as you cast your vote on Monday:
October 2021 – Porter, then a sergeant, is promoted to Deputy Chief unanimously by the Select Board, with the full backing of Hopkinton Police Chief Joseph Bennett.
August 2022 – Porter is placed on administrative leave by Bennett. No details are given for the leave.
April-May 2023 – Porter submits his resignation from HPD and as varsity girls soccer coach at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School.
Three days later, Porter is arraigned on three counts of child rape by the Middlesex County District Attorney, based on accusations from the accuser dating to Porter’s time as the School Resource Officer at Hopkinton High School in 2004-2005. He is allowed to remain free on bail. He can also retire from government service with his benefits intact under the Middlesex County Retirement System (MCRS).
Brennan is placed on administrative leave by Bennett. No details are given for the leave.
October 2023 – A report prepared by corporate investigations and risk consulting firm Kroll at the request of the Town’s law firm is released. The report summarizes Brennan’s actions in supporting the Porter accuser’s decision to bring her accusations to the attention of the DA.
January 2024 – Brennan requests a Loudermill Hearing to contest a recommendation to the Select Board by Bennett that the sergeant be immediately dismissed from HPD for violating regulations. This means Brennan would lose all the earned benefits he had accumulated in 36 years of public service and his job.
Four members of the Select Board, including Mannan, indicated at the hearing that they would vote to dismiss Brennan. However, the decision was tabled after residents at the Senior Center exploded in outrage.
The next morning, the accuser’s mother contacts me. She is extremely distraught that, at Bennett’s direction, an unredacted Kroll report identifying her daughter and grandchildren is posted to the HPD website and released to the media. In addition, Select Board Member Amy Ritterbusch shared it through her official social media profile.
Remember this next year when Ritterbusch also comes up for re-election.
I immediately emailed the members of the Select Board and the Town Manager to notify them of this egregious and perilous invasion of the accuser’s privacy. I never received a reply.
The offending post is not taken down until more than 48 hours have eclipsed, although Town officials claim they took it down within 18 hours of it being posted. The Town’s PR firm, JGPR, which sent the report to media outlets, asks them to return the report. By then, it is too late. The report has been available for anyone to download for two days.
Please note: There is no way of knowing how many people downloaded the unredacted Kroll report, or who they were. It included information on where she lived at the time as well. Again, Mr. Mannan is a healthcare data executive. Given his professional training and extensive knowledge of data privacy safeguards, Mr. Mannan should have been at the forefront of Town officials in ensuring that such a very public breach of the accuser and her children’s PII was prevented. Instead, he was AWOL.
Because of this breach, the accuser to this day fears for her safety as well as that of her children because of this illegal exposure of their personal identifying information.
February 2024 – The Select Board votes 4-1 to dismiss Brennan, with Mannan voting with the majority.
Several Hopkinton residents ask the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office to investigate the release of the insufficiently redacted Kroll Report.
The Middlesex DA Office recuses itself due to a conflict of interest caused by the criminal case pending against Porter. The Northwestern District Attorney’s Office launches an investigation.
April 2024 – Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven E. Gagne declines to pursue criminal charges against Town officials or any other parties involved with the illegal release of the report, citing a lack of criminal intent based on his narrow reading of applicable statutes.
However, Gagne concludes there is no question “the Town published, disseminated or otherwise disclosed the Brennan transcript by virtue of uploading it to the “News Blog” where any visitor to the website could download a PDF version of the transcript without payment or password.“
Gagne adds, “The public release of the Brennan transcript without all necessary redactions of the victim’s name was both avoidable and regrettable.”
July 2024 – Bryan Bertram of Harrington Heep LLP, the town’s primary attorney at the time of the release of the information who still serves in that role, apologized to the accuser in an appearance before the Town’s Select Board.
“I personally feel awful about what happened, and I know speaking with all of the team members that they do too,” said Bertram. “This was a mistake and we feel poorly for it. I can’t pretend to say I understand how this affected the survivor because I’m not in her shoes and I don’t know. But I certainly appreciate the significance of it and the severity of it.”
>> RELATED: VIDEO: Reaction to Town’s Attorney on Redacted Document Scandal
To date, Mr. Bertram and former Select Board Chair Muriel Kramer – to their credit – are the only parties involved in this saga who have accepted any form of serious and sincere responsibility.
Chief Bennett has not.
Former Town Manager Norman Khumalo has not.
The town’s PR firm, JGPR, has not.
The other Select Board members – who looked bad when the man they promoted to Deputy Chief was charged with three counts of child rape and then fired the sergeant who helped the accuser feel safe in coming forward to help prevent this from happening to other students – has not.
And that includes Mr. Mannan.
Following this tragicomedy of errors, Mr. Mannan finally decided to use his expertise in data privacy to encourage the town to adopt better policies and procedures to protect victims who come forward in the future. Good for him. Far too late for the accuser.
Remember this when you cast your vote on Monday. Please do not vote for Mr. Mannan. Since the DA will not hold anyone accountable, it’s up to the voters in Hopkinton to do so at the ballot box.
Sincerely,
Timothy Boivin
Hopkinton
Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of HopNews. Letters may be edited for clarity, grammar, and length.
Oh PLEASE! Tim is gone because he knew the school resource officer was having sex w a senior in high school and said nothing. He deserved to be let go. This hate toward the people in our town who upheld the law has to stop. Tim is in Milford and employed. You all ‘tried’ to recall our Select Board members and our Police Chief and FAILED. The Select Board chose correctly when they chose to let Tim go. I am truly beyond sorry the victim’s name was released. I never saw it. Your misplaced anger and hatred are misdirected. How about we blame Porter for bringing this mess to our town to start with. Then the Hiller’s pizza guy. Next the custodian.
Beth, you are sadly very wrong.
Tim was fired for not reporting the rape of child, (I believe she was 14 at the time of the rape) “to his superior”. The person who raped the child was his “superior”. So instead of telling his boss that he knew he was a child rapist, he let the DA handle it. The very next morning.
The rapes occurred over 15 years ago.
Imagine on a Sunday a 32 year victim, tells you she was raped and is going to the Middlesex DA the next morning. Then you get fired for not reporting the rape — TO THE RAPIST!!—.
Your blindness is evident in your flippant response and failure to capture what happened correctly.
Read the timeline Beth. Porter is a rapist, the Chief is a fool and your select board wasted 1/2 a million dollars plus Porters retirement.
Oh yeah I almost forgot,
#thankyoutim
This sounds like typical Trumper propaganda. Shahidul stood for Law and Order. When “Law and Order” goes against you, you all don’t want “Law and Order”. Why don’t you run on your guy’s positives? That is right because he said his qualification is growing up in the town and experience is playing in youth sports. Shahidul Mannan is a dedicated servant leader with stellar qualifications and proven track record. Stop being divisive for your narrow political agenda.
Sravan,
Injustice makes strange bedfellows, so to speak. I am not a Trumper. In fact, after the last election, I changed my party affiliation from Democrat, and believe me, it wasn’t to the Republican party. In fact, I find myself in a unique position, working WITH people who may be at the opposite end of the political spectrum from me to try to gain some justice for this young woman and her family. Justice that has been denied at seemingly every corner of the law and order arm of our Town Government.
So I have some questions for you:
When is it Law and Order for the Police Chief, the Town Manager, the Town’s PR and legal firms, to directly violate State Law and get a mere slap on the rhetorical wrist?
When is it law and order when the Select Board is supposed to hold a fair hearing before reaching a decision on Tim Brennan, and instead arrives with prepared statements to fire him?
When is it Law and Order when Chief Bennett KNOWS about the accusations against Deputy Chief Porter, and still allows him to continue being the GIRLS soccer coach at a neighboring high school after being charged with three counts of child rape on a female student at Hopkinton High School?
When is it Law and Order when a continuance is granted so Porter is allowed to attend his daughter’s wedding, then continued again, and now again…two years after the initial charges were filed, causing even more anguish and anxiety for the woman who made the allegations?
I did not endorse the other two candidates, although I do plan to vote for both of them in my singular attempt at the ballot box to keep Mr. Mannan from serving any further on the Select Board.
As I said in my letter, I acknowledge that he Mr. Mannan has done good things for the Town. But all of that — ALL OF THAT — is outweighed by his failure to act to ensure the Town, its appointed and elected officials, and its contracted consulting firms protected the young woman in this case.
I’m not being divisive for a narrow political agenda. I’m asking that the Town voters hold Mr. Mannan and everyone else in Town government responsible for the pain and suffering they inflicted on this young woman.
The rest of our supposed law and order institutions have refused to live up to that responsibility. This is not just an indictment of Town officials and consultants, it’s an indictment of the entire law and order system that was supposed to protect this young mother and her family.
The only place left to protect her is at the ballot box. That’s the only way voters can ensure the people responsible for this woman’s pain and suffering are not allowed to continue serving in the roles in which they failed so horribly at.
I totally understand why you are hesitant about declaring yourself as a Republican. The legal process was followed and you just don’t like the results. I will give you credit for the linguistic trickery. As I said, you are trying to get Jeff Doyle elected and he doesn’t have the credentials that Shahidul Mannan has. Not even close. So, you have to do negative attacks to provoke anger and hatred. Your whole narrative is a political hit job. I find it shameful to attack volunteers to achieve your goals. We have seen these divisive tactics by Trump and Republicans at the federal level. It brings the worst out of us and does nothing to make our town better. People with no ideas, no qualifications and no solutions resort to negative attacks.
I have never met Jeff Doyle. Nor am I actively campaigning for him. I plan to vote for him. I plan to vote for Mr. Kizner (who is very impressive in my estimation, based on his input at ATMs).
I will not vote for Mr. Mannan. Period. This isn’t a negative attack. This is what happened. I am stating my reason for not voting for him. It’s a right granted to all of us.
With all due respect, you are “urging not to cast your ballot” for Shahidul. “Urging and “stating” are not the same, Sir. So, it is a negative attack. This is your opinion of what happened. You are absolutely entitled to have your opinion and vote however you chose. If you are really passionate about making our town better, you could be proposing positive solutions that I might agree with rather than urging me not to vote for someone. I do agree with you that Matt Kizner is impressive with his experience volunteering in the town. Have a nice day!
Urging and stating are not the same? And you accuse me of linguistic trickery? Seriously?
I am proposing a positive solution. I am asking for fresh faces on the Select Board.
Have a nice day as well.
Yes, Sir. I use the dictionary. Here are the definitions:
Urging: the act of strongly advising or encouraging someone to do a particular thing
Stating: to say or write something
Your solution sounds a lot like Trump nominating quacks with no experience or credentials for positions like Surgeon General. When I say solution, I mean what changes do you want to see in the process. We can agree to disagree on that as neither of us is going to convince the other.
Sravan,
I think I’ve been pretty clear about what I want the change in the process to be. On Election Day, I urge people not to vote for Shahidul Mannan, and bring fresh faces on the Select Board who can work to ensure this never happens again.
Anyone currently serving on the Board who was involved in this needs to step aside. If they won’t, I am stating that I believe the voters should make them. I will be one vote.
And please stop equating me to Trump or MAGA. Anyone who knows me, who knows of the national work I am doing daily to protest the cuts in veterans benefits, knows that I do actually hate both Trump and the MAGA movement. You can see that on my Facebook page, on my BlueSky page, on my LinkedIn account, and in the work I am doing for opposition groups.
If you want to argue on the principles of this case, stick to the relevant issues. Stop trying to question my motives for speaking up as a citizen, one whose views are protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — a Constitution I took an oath to at a young age when I joined the Army and one that never expires.
I will agree with you on one thing, Sravan. On these relevant issues surrounding this election and the Porter case, we will not agree or convince each other. That’s OK. That is your right and that is my right.
I still stand behind what I have written here on this post and in the comments.
Timothy, You want a change the people and not the process. It is not the same. I am not equating you to Trump or MAGA. I am saying that your actions of supporting people with lesser qualifications has parallels. I support you in your protest against the cuts in veterans benefits and your work with opposition groups. I have already said that you are entitled to your opinion and who you vote for. When you make a negative attack on a beloved volunteer, you are also entitled to the consequences. Have a nice weekend!
1. She was not a senior.
2. I don’t hate any of the people involved in this. I just don’t think they should be in their positions anymore.
But you are correct. I am angry. And it isn’t misdirected, it isn’t misplaced.
I’m angry that the town allowed Porter to continue to coach a girl’s soccer team at a high school in a neighboring town, even at a time he was suspended because of allegations he raped a student at Hopkinton High School three times.
I’m angry that Hopkinton Town officials never informed officials at the neighboring high school that they had a coach accused of being a sexual predator of a teenage girl leading their girls soccer team of, yes, teenage girls.
I’m angry that the Select Board did not give Tim Brennan a fair hearing at the kangaroo court they held in the Senior Center that January.
I’m angry that the Police Chief, the Town’s law firm, the Town’s PR firm, the Town Manager AND most of the Select Board thought it was OK to send out the Kroll Report without doing its due diligence.
I’m angry that nobody replied when I notified Town officials that Saturday morning after the Loudermill Hearing that they had doxxed the victim and her two young children.
I’m angry that they waited 48 hours to take the Report down.
I’m angry that the month after that they fired a good law enforcement officer who was highly respected in our community — so much so that a neighboring town’s police chief hired him and thought he did the right thing in this case.
I’m angry that with the exception of Muriel Kramer, NOBODY on the Select Board to this day has offered a sincere apology to the young woman they doxxed.
I’m angry that the Police Chief is still employed as the Town’s chief law enforcement officer, despite a woeful performance record and his egregious invasion of this woman’s privacy — which I remind everyone is against Massachusetts State Law.
I’m angry that the Northwestern Assistant District Attorney allowed Town officials to wiggle out of any criminal charges on a technicality, even though what they did directly violated Massachusetts law and was done at the direction of the chief LAW enforcement officer in this town.
I’m angry that after two years of ridiculous continuances, the Porter trial today was continued yet again for another week, causing the woman who made the allegations even more pain and anxiety.
I’m angry that after this trial, the Town faces a certain civil lawsuit for revealing the PII of the victim of her children — a completely avoidable lawsuit that will cost this Town millions of dollars when it is settled, not to mention all the legal fees the law firm that dropped the ball in the first place will now charge the town to adjudicate.
And Beth, I’m angry at people like you, some of our Town officials and others who somehow think this is all OK and let’s just move on. This stain on the town’s reputation will not go away for a long time.
When you write things like your response above, you are complicit in trying to bluewash this whole thing.
But mostly, I’m angry that this Town has ruined this woman’s life. It’s bad enough that she is accusing an authority figure in her youth of violating her in the most heinous manner. But for other Town officials to then carelessly fail to protect her and offer up their lawyer as the sacrificial lamb for an apology is absolutely disgusting.
Still no sincere apology from the Select Board members.
Still no sincere apology from the former Town manager.
Still no sincere apology from the PR firm.
Still no sincere apology from the Police Chief.
This happened on their watch.
And you just add to my and many others outrage with your atrocious remarks above.
Misdirected? Misplaced?
I don’t think so.
May God have mercy on your soul.
Tim Brennan was a disgrace to the Hopkinton Police Department. He failed to do basic actions to protect the integrity of the department.
He failed Hopkinton, along with Chief Bennett and Tim Porter. They ignored their moral and ethical duties because they are hard.
Kroll and the Town Counsel failed to correctly follow procedure.
Mannan, Ritterbush and others in the Select Board were inadvertently negligent in the release _because they assumed the others did their job_.
If Tim Brennan has been as upstanding as you proclaim, this would never have happened.
Shame on you for blaming everyone besides the party at fault! Your failure to see accountability has me questioning your personal integrity.
Agreed. He’s blaming everyone BUT the 2 cops involved. Porter and Brennan. By the time the victim admitted she was actually under age when it started the damage was done. Tim had already covered for her abuser. When a police officer KNOWS a married resource officer is having sex w a high school student ABSOLUTELY NOTHING should stop him from reporting it. Nothing. I think as a town, we should be looking at why we have had so many pedophiles . Hillers Pizza guy appears to be a repeat offender. Why wasn’t he stopped the first time? How did he get his citizenship after 2 rape accusations?
Beth,
John Adams wrote:
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
So let me correct some of the alterations to the facts and evidence that you have made in this string:
FACT: When the accuser was 25 years of age, Tim Brennan became aware from the woman that she had a consensual affair with Porter that she told him started on her 18th birthday.
FACT: It wasn’t until the woman was 32, when she informed Tim that she planned to report Porter to the DA’s office. At that time, that she informed Tim what actually took place when she was 15 years old — which resulted in three charges of child rape against Porter.
FACT: During his hearing, Tim apologized to the Town and said he would have done things different if he had the chance to go back and do it all over again. HE TOOK ACCOUNTABILITY! Unlike most of the other town officials.
I appreciate that you want to support Mr. Mannan’s candidacy, as is your right. And again, Mr. Mannan has done good things for the town, but he dropped the ball in this case. Given his citing throughout his campaign of his expertise in healthcare data with all its privacy implications, it’s astounding that this not only happened on his watch, but worse, once it did, he just zipped his lip until Town Counsel took the bullet for everyone else.
So get your facts straight, Beth. Continuing the character assassination of Tim Brennan, a good cop who took accountability for his actions and paid a very steep price, is a disgrace.
You should be ashamed.
A.S., from the very start of this sad affair, you have been the chief apologist in this forum for all the parties who are responsible for this travesty of injustice.
Inadvertently negligent? No. They were negligent. Period.
Accountability? Seriously?
They were notified that Saturday morning about the Report being unredacted. The post on the HPD website was not taken down until Sunday night.
Again, with the exception of Muriel Kramer and Town Counsel, nobody involved in this sad affair has accepted responsibility or sincerely apologized to the woman who made the accusations. That’s not accountability.
Tim Brennan also apologized in his statements over time and said he probably would have done things differently if he could go back. And yet the senior law enforcement officer in Milford says he acted appropriately.
Meanwhile, mum’s the word with Chief Bennett, who, yes, still hasn’t apologized in any way, shape or form to the woman. And there is no accountability that he has taken for directing that the report be posted THE AFTERNOON OF THE LOUDERMILL HEARING.
Talk about stacking the deck and a kangaroo court.
As for your questioning of my personal integrity, I will point out that I sign my full name to everything I post. I don’t hide behind initials, or only a first name, like you and so many of the people on this forum who disagree with me have done over the past 16 months.
So I will take your questioning my integrity as a badge of honor that I shall wear proudly. At least I have the integrity to stand proudly for what I believe without trying to hide.
Congratulations on your safety on being in a position where you can speak publicly and not fear retribution from third parties.
Sometimes one has to worry about physical safety when speaking uncomfortable truths. I learned this long ago and will continue to prioritize my freedoms over your comfort.
I am sure I am at risk of physical safety by continuing to bring up an issue that too many people in this town wish would go away. But some things are more important than one’s own safety, like my friend’s right to privacy and Tim Brennan’s reputation. So i continue to press the issue, consequences be damned.
I also stand with Tim Boivin. Vote against Shahidul Mannan. As as a citizen of hopkinton I have been to most of the select board meetings since January 19 Brennan hearing shahidul has shown no leadership at all. Some simple facts over 1,000 signatures were collected to remove shahidul from the board. john Jay Porter is charged with a felony offense. Chief Bennett and board member Ritterbusch committed a crime with the release of the victims name. The town meeting voted to reinstate Sergeant Tim Brennan. The select board has not followed the will of the people and reinstated sergeant Brennan. Shahidul Mannan has failed to do his job.
Please know that most folks who simply didn’t support Brennan didn’t bother to go to the ATM night where they took the non official vote to reinstate Tim. I honestly think it was a waste of tax payers money. I did go and spoke against his reinstatement. 1,000 signatures doesn’t come close to representing the whole town of close to 20k. It is true that our Select Board voted 4-1 to let Tim go. It wasn’t even close. Obviously I am sorry the victims name was released. If there’s a law suit then we will all pay the price. Just like we did with our pedo HMS teacher. I believe in the leadership of our town more so now than years back. I am proud of our Select Board and Police Chief. We can have a difference of opinion and vote differently.
Beth and AS –
Your claims are factually incorrect. No. Your claims are FLAT-OUT WRONG.
Tim Brennan did not sit on a victim’s report of an alleged rape of a child. Not at all. Not for a second. Like the thousands of others who signed Jim Scanlon’s petition, I am unapologetically a friend of Tim Brennan.
But being Tim Brennan’s friend in no way changes the facts. That’s right. Being Tim Brennan’s friend in no way changes the facts.
Despite your repeated attempts to sully the name and reputation of a good man and a fine police officer in your agenda-driven narrative, you continue to be armed only with inaccurate rumors and innuendos.
You know little about the facts and even less about the law.
I admit. I’m not on Facebook. But I use it enough for work to know that if your reckless comment had been posted on Facebook during the pre-Trump era, Zuckerberg’s fact-checkers would have TAKEN IT DOWN.
Jay PORTER alone stands accused of a CRIME – a violation not only of the law but a violation of the trust of a teenaged victim whom he was charged to protect decades ago. Yet, despite multiple indictments, Porter was allowed (by his bosses — the Chief, the Select Board, and the Town Manager) to RETIRE with a full pension, as if nothing had happened.
A grand jury of citizens like you from across Middlesex County investigated what happened and when. They were aided by a multidisciplinary team of experienced lawyers, detectives, forensic specialists, and victim-witness advocates.
Secretly, and unbeknownst to the rest of us, the grand jurors dove into the evidence and the law. All of it. They had access to real evidence, not gossip from the local salon.
Out of that grand jury came three felony indictments against JAY PORTER for RAPE of a CHILD under 16—nothing else.
If you had been paying attention, you would have noticed that the grand jury did not charge Porter with sexual assault. That’s because there was no sexual assault to charge; the victim was over the age of 14.
You also would have noticed that the grand jury was silent on Brennan. Why? Because Brennan was the hero in that story, not the perpetrator!
But the nefarious way you and others have woven your web of lies has left some townspeople with the impression that Brennan was complicit.
To quote Mary Ellen Gambon in one of her arguably slanderous articles — one bearing a shockingly defamatory title that included the carefully chosen words of “Brennan, implicated in Porter case” — you and Gambon and others have had no problem misleading the town into thinking that “Brennan, who has been linked to a criminal court case involving [Porter]…” was “linked” (as Gambon said) in a criminal way.
https://hopkintonindependent.com/fate-of-sgt-brennan-implicated-in-porter-case-to-be-determined-at-select-board-meeting-tuesday/
Gambon conspicuously failed to responsibly and clearly state that Brennan’s only connection to the “Porter case” was as a victim-centric cop, dutifully exposing the crimes of Porter, his boss. Someone should buy a dictionary for Gambon. Language like that might boomerang as claims of defamation and slander.
Tim Brennan NEVER has been criminally investigated or accused of any crime or any legitimate failure to perform his lawful duty.
This fact has been corroborated by both the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and the POST Commission. In fact, the Order from the POST Commission references Bennett’s admission, in writing, that said:
“Many victims are hesitant to participate in prosecution. Victims of sexual assault and domestic violence are those who are most commonly among hesitant victims. When a victim is reluctant[,] police officers work to serve these victims and stand ready should they decide to come forward with prosecution.”
And that’s why the Order concluded: that’s “exactly what Brennan did.”
https://399759da.delivery.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2024-09-06-Order-of-Single-Commissioner-Brennan-FINAL.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0PGkakjRAUtoYczbQ8sQoW9sEoEkJqeRZKfiJVj2GvhNBeyJBsiG2FAaDpDV6fPzpl&id=61565001517890
Tim Brennan’s actions were textbook on-point when dealing with victims. You would have heard that if expert attorney Liz Keeley had been allowed to speak during the Loudermill hearing. Speaking through its counsel, Nick Anastasopoulos, the Town and the Select Board denied Brennan’s request that Elizabeth Keeley present on his behalf during the Loudermill hearing.
Why was subject matter expert and attorney Liz Keeley denied the chance to present on Brennan’s behalf?
Good question. She was the sole subject matter expert in the room. Keeley was the Chief of the Human Trafficking Division at the Office of the Attorney General (AGO) for Massachusetts from 2016 through 2022. In that role, she investigated and prosecuted numerous complex, multi-county, multiple-victim sex trafficking cases to successful resolution, brought forward groundbreaking labor trafficking, conspiracy, and criminal wage and hour cases, and managed multidisciplinary investigative teams of lawyers, advocates, and federal, state, and local law enforcement.
Tim Brennan was terminated for his actions (yet, Brennan’s actions were the only appropriate police actions taken in this victim-centric scenario). By contrast, the alleged rapist Porter—even after Porter’s indictment—was allowed to retire.
Terminated by an inept Chief, an inept Select Board, an inept Town Manager, a laughingly inept town attorney, and an inept PR firm. All of whom could have been charged criminally for their actions had NWDA used its discretion to prosecute rather than sit this one out.
Yet the “clown show” (past and present) representing our town chose to put its collective head in the sand and move for termination based on multiple policies that were NOT EVEN IN EFFECT at the time of the alleged violations.
Brennan, a highly regarded town employee with 20+ years of experience and with overarching town support (as seen at the Loudermill hearings and during the overwhelming vote at Town Meeting instructing the Select Board to take a new vote on Bennett’s request to fire him) was terminated for a first-offense policy violation that was not a crime. Unprecedented. Unheard of. An arbitrator will reverse it, and it will cost the town a lot of money.
This group of alleged “leaders” in our town is doubling down on the arrogance and the ignorance. They hired and promoted the bad guy, and they will go to any lengths (including the shameful career assassination of Tim Brennan) to deny their collective responsibility for that.
There was a time when I believed that our town was led by honest, experienced, and moral people. That time, I’m afraid, is in the past. People…don’t be fooled by charlatans’ shenanigans.
Oh, and Beth and AS: I know you guys will respond to this comment. You can’t help yourselves. You’ll stop at nothing to justify your ignorance, mistake, and smear campaign. Go right ahead.
The case against Porter will play out.
The arbitration against the town/Chief Bennett will play out.
Let Truth be the judge.
Tim Babbin
Hopkinton
I make no determination or findings in that regard – POST Commission
Amen. Thank you, Tim Babbin, for speaking out — and informing everyone of the FACTS.
Look no further, and please read Tim Babbin’s statement again. He shares the proven facts of this case.
Everyone can have their own opinions; however, at least base them on the factual information.
When someone — Beth, in this case, starts her narrative by saying that Brennan “knew the school resource officer was having sex w a senior in high school and said nothing,” then nothing after that holds any merit as her first statement has absolutely no factual evidence to stand behind it. It’s irresponsible and defamatory, and actually just further shows that our town leaders have not spoken out enough (or at all) to set the record straight.