On Tuesday night, the Select Board received an update from town counsel on the “insufficiently redacted transcript” scandal.
Watch Bertram’s statement to the Select Board and follow along with HopNews Editor-in-Chief Peter Thomas as he provides commentary, context and fact-checking.
For readers just learning of this issue, here’s a quick recap:
- Former Deputy Chief of Police Jay Porter is alleged to have raped an underage student at Hopkinton High School while he was the School Resource Officer in 2004-2005. He currently awaits trial.
- Former police Sergeant Timothy Brennan admitted to learning of the allegations when the victim was 28 years old. Instead of reporting the crime to his superior officer (Porter) he urged the victim to come forward on her own.
- The victim eventually disclosed the alleged crime to the Middlesex District Attorney. As part of her interview, she also disclosed that she’d told Brennan about the crime.
- The Town of Hopkinton, through their legal counsel Harrington Heep, contracted an independent investigative firm (Kroll Investigations) to ascertain what Brennan knew and when he knew it. During the interview, the lead investigator and a former Boston police officer, Daniel Linskey, referred to the alleged victim by name. A word-for-word transcript of the interview was recorded.
- On the recommendation of Police Chief Joseph Bennett, the Select Board sought to terminate Brennan. As a union employee, Brennan exercised his right to a public hearing – known as a Loudermill hearing – which took place on January 19, 2024.
- In advance of the meeting, the town released a tranche of documents they intended to present at the Loudermill hearing, which ostensibly would make the case for Brennan’s termination. One of the documents released was the transcript of the interview between Kroll and Brennan, and it was only partially redacted, revealing the name, birthday, college and profession of the alleged victim. This is a violation of Massachusetts General Law. Compounding the damage, the town issued a press release to local and Boston media outlets and the release was amplified by Select Board member Amy Ritterbusch on her social media channels.
- The Northwest District Attorney’s Office (NWDAO) subsequently conducted an investigation, finding “numerous missed opportunities to avert this mistake…(but) the evidence establishes that this was an unintentional and regrettable oversight, one that understandably caused tremendous distress to the victim”. The NWDAO declined to recommend criminal charges.
- Between January and May, the Hopkinton Select Board did not address the matter publicly, in spite of citizens repeatedly appearing at Public Forum demanding accountability (notably resident Timothy Boivin, who has doggedly pursued the board on this matter). But with the election of Brian Herr and Joe Clark (and notably, Herr’s election to Chair), the matter was finally addressed. It was Mr. Clark that pushed for Tuesday’s agenda item.
Harrington Heep (formerly known as Miyares & Harrington) has served as the town’s outside attorney for several years and inherited the town’s business through their now retired partner, Ray Miyares. Harrington Heep provides assistance with real estate transactions, litigation, town government procedure, and many other areas, with the exception of labor matters, which are handled by a different firm.
Between 2020 – 2023, the town spent $1,295,600 with Harrington Heep.
Bryan Bertram of Harrington Heep serves as the town’s primary attorney, and addressed the Select Board on behalf of the firm.
“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.”
I love the way you dissected Bertram’s presentation, Peter. It’s a powerful way to keep public officials and town vendors accountable for the comments and actions.
That was phenomenal, thank you. You certainly made the case for Hopkinton to hire an in-house legal team in addition to kicking Harrington Heep to the curb.
I hope the Select Board and our newly appointed Town Manager were paying attention!
Bertram is a partner with Harrington Heep. As a senior member of that firm, I find his explanation weak, and the fact that he did not come prepared with ways his firm would improve their process unacceptable. Their work process is flawed and they know it. It’s up to them to demonstrate to our Select Board that it will be remedied immediately and what new procedures they will put in place. Despite the talk about redaction software a human being still needs to review the end result understanding what needs to be redacted. An automated process could still have left the victim’s name in there and if those reviewing the end result don’t pick up on mistakes then we are in the same place.
Making everything public to “get ahead” of the requests for information is mind boggling in its bad judgement.
I agree that it’s time for Hopkinton to hire its own attorney based on the expense numbers presented here. If not that, then a new firm to represent our town.