The Select Board on Tuesday will hear an update from town counsel regarding the culpability of those involved in releasing online to the public an improperly redacted report of an interview with embattled former Sgt. Tim Brennan that was part of the investigation of his former HPD colleague.
Brennan’s interview, conducted in February 2023, was part of what has become known as the Kroll report. Several parties were interviewed by Kroll investigators as part of an independent investigation into the conduct of former Hopkinton Deputy Police Chief John “Jay” Porter, who pled not guilty in May 2023 to three counts of child rape that allegedly occurred two decades ago during Porter’s stint as a school resources officer at Hopkinton High School.
The discussion will revolve around a report on the investigation by the Northwestern District Attorney’s office as to who was to blame for releasing the improperly redacted report online on the HPD news blog, which made reference to information that could be used to identify Porter’s alleged victim. The Northwestern DA’s Office was requested to conduct the investigation in February by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office to avoid any potential conflict of interest issues because of the inclusion of interviews with HPD officers, including Chief Joseph Bennett.
The NWDAO report showed that the stenographer Kroll used made the initial error. But several town employees and Select Board members also missed it upon their respective reviews, “perhaps because they assumed all necessary redactions had already been made by counsel (not an unreasonable assumption).”
“Notwithstanding the numerous missed opportunities to avert this mistake,” the report concluded, “the evidence establishes that this was an unintentional and regrettable oversight, one that understandably caused tremendous distress to the victim.”
Steven E. Gagne, the first assistant district attorney in the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, conducted the investigation with Massachusetts State Police Captain Jeffrey Cahill, who heads the office’s State Police Detective Unit. In their report, they concluded that “a number of people could have averted the unfortunate release of the insufficiently redacted Brennan transcript.” It was released on the HPD news blog on Jan. 19. Once the error was discovered, it was removed the next day. The town on Jan. 23 announced that it had recalled the Brennan interview transcript from Kroll to have it properly redacted.
The NWDAO report stated that the stenographer Kroll used failed to catch the initial error of not redacting the victim’s first name in two instances, first in the transcript of Brennan’s interview and then in a document index.
“Prior to providing the town with the Brennan transcript, Kroll specifically asked the stenographer to redact from the document any references to the victim’s first name and some other highly personal information,” the report stated.
The NWDAO report showed that “16 redactions were made to the transcript prior to its release to the town via the town’s labor counsel.”
In preparation for the Loudermill hearing to determine if Brennan should be terminated from the HPD, town counsel worked with labor counsel to compile relevant documents into a packet, according to the report. This packet was forward to then Town Manager Norman Khumalo and Bennett. They approved the packet’s release to the Select Board on Jan. 13. None of the people involved in this release caught the missed redactions, nor did the Select Board members after their review.
The NWDAO report stated in a footnote that the first name of the alleged victim inadvertently mentioned by Kroll investigator Daniel Linskey “should have raised a flag that a redaction was needed.”
An additional footnote noted that while potential “additional redactions of other personal information” could have been made to shield the alleged victim’s identity, such as her birthday, schools attended and current profession, “that is beyond the scope of NWDAO’s review.”
The NWDAO report specified that “General Laws chapter 265, section 24C only requires that a sexual assault victim’s name remain confidential.”
After reviewing relevant cases and statutes, Gagne wrote that the release of the improperly redacted report was unintentional, which would negate criminal liability.
“In my estimation, it would not be possible to prove (regardless of whether the legal standard were mere probable cause or the higher ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard) that anyone knowingly or intentionally violated” legal statutes, Gagne wrote in reference to the information he reviewed.
This conclusion may not sit well with ardent supporters of Brennan, as the report was released online directly after the first hearing that led to his subsequent termination. Some residents have demanded Brennan’s reinstatement as well as started a petition drive for a recall election to remove the members of the Select Board currently serving at the time of Brennan’s termination — Shahidul Mannan, Amy Ritterbusch and current vice chair Mary Jo LaFreniere. They got a moral victory when May’s Special Town Meeting voted in favor of a citizens’ petition to direct the Select Board to reinstate Brennan.
I don’t hold out much, if any, hope that anyone will be held responsible and/or suffer any consequences for releasing the personal identifying information of the victim and her children. But I will be on hand as an advocate for the victim and her family to bear witness to the ongoing despicable abdication of responsibility by our town’s senior-most government officials should that prove to be the case tomorrow.