With Boston’s murder rate at a 10-year high, and a new scandal involving alleged crooked cops, the city could use some transparency to help rebuild confidence in its police department.
But throughout the Cowans lawsuit, the city’s attorneys have resisted revealing more than they need to, both in public and in court responses. Asked repeatedly in court documents whether the city agrees with specific conclusions of the Smith & Associates’ March 8 report, for instance, the most the city would concede is that the report “speaks for itself.”
The city also asked for and received protective orders to keep depositions and documents sealed from the public — including a deposition given by Kathleen O’Toole before she left for a new job in Ireland, and depositions given by former members of the identification unit. Those protective orders remain in effect, and will continue to at least until the LeBlanc-McLaughlin suit concludes — if it ever does.
There are times when, under attack, a city acts like a corporation using any legal means to protect its shareholders’ interests. But at the same time, it owes the people an accounting of how and why it locked a citizen away for a crime that the district attorney and a superior court concluded he did not commit.
On the Web
David S. Bernstein's ongoing coverage of the Boston Police Department: http://www.thephoenix.com/homicide
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