Canton Cover-Up Part 247: Records Request For Text Messages From Canton Police And Select Board Ignored By Chris Albert, Runs On Honor System

 

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Three weeks ago I submitted a records request with the Town of Canton for all email communications to and from municipal employees, including the police department and members of the Board of Selectmen, that mentioned Aidan Kearney, Turtleboy, and other related keywords. I ended up getting a 915 page document, and although it wasn’t quite what I expected, it was still rather revealing.

Over 600 pages are emails from Twitter, because Police Chief Helena Rafferty used her official town email address to sign up for her account. She apparently has some sort of setting on where she gets alerted every time I tweet:

Apparently she obsessively monitors my actions, in case I say something negative about the fact that her police department and the State Police completely botched a murder investigation that has allowed a bunch of cop killers to roam free for the last 2 years.

However, one thing I did find interesting was that someone going by Doc Jones filed a records request on October 25 for all emails and text messages relating to the Special Town Meeting. The petitioner asked for all communications that used a variety of keywords, including Turtleboy, Rita Lombardi, Kathleen Howley, Chris Albert, and more than a dozen others. They specifically asked for certain town employees, including the entire Select Board, Chief Rafferty, Officer Ted Lehan, and Administrator Charles Doody.

Text messages are subject to public records request, even if made from personal devices. Two years ago the Boston Globe requested all cell phone communications from School Committee members, after they saw members texting each other during meetings. Although they attempted to hide certain communications, it was later discovered that two of the members had sent extremely racist messages about white residents of West Roxbury during the meeting, leading to their resignation. The precedent has been established – cell phone communications on your personal device are not privileged if you use your phone while you’re working as a municipal employee.

But in Canton they’ve never really been interested in following the law. IT Director Louis Jutras, who sent the Canton Library video footage to Michael Proctor which was later discovered to have 2 minutes missing when Karen Read drove by, said he wasn’t sure of the legality of asking for text messages.

But the law has been established, and they must submit all text messages. Initially no one responded, prompting a second email reminder from Town Clerk Tracy Kenney.

She heard back from Selectman John Connolly on November 7, who simply replied with “have none.”

Because apparently this is on the honor system. Are we to believe that a member of the Board of Selectmen doesn’t have a single text message in his phone that contains the words “special town meeting,” “Chris Albert,” “Police,” “Selectboard,” or “CPD?”

Speaking of Chris Albert, he didn’t respond at all, and Kenney didn’t send a third email reminding him that he is duty bound by the law to respond. Of course since it’s on the honor system I think it’s safe to say that Chris Albert would report back the same thing John Connolly did.

Chief Rafferty also found nothing using those keywords.

Ya got that? The Chief of Police doesn’t have a single text message that contains the word “police,” or “Turtleboy,” even though she signed up for Twitter notifications every time Turtleboy tweets.

Officer Lehan also didn’t have any text messages about the Special Town Meeting, petition, or police department, even though he was in charge of harassing organizers of the petition to see if fraudulent signatures were obtained.

Notice he said he didn’t have a work phone. In other words, he didn’t look through his personal phone. If he did, it wouldn’t matter anyway because he can delete messages and it’s all on the honor system anyway.

The administrative secretary and the executive assistant just flat out refused to reveal what was in their messages.

And why would they? They’re not going to enforce the law anyway.

This is yet another example of how corrupt the Town of Canton currently is, and how the law doesn’t apply to well connected, powerful people.