Monday, January 09, 2006

The sooner, the better

Tom Reilly needs to stop talking about it. So does Kerry Healey. Reilly's steady stream of protestations shows he can't fathom why his call to John Conte might have been objectionable, which hints at a troubling lack of self-awareness. As for Healey's incendiary claim that Reilly obstructed a criminal investigation, let me just say that the lieutenant governor should have followed my advice. Right now, this back-and-forth is only good for two people: Deval Patrick and Christy Mihos.

Here's State House News Service's latest update on Reilly v. Healey:

WAR OF WORDS OVER ACCIDENT CASE CONTINUES BETWEEN REILLY, HEALEY
By Amy Lambiaso
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
amy.lambiaso@statehousenews.com

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, JAN. 9, 2006….Attorney General Thomas Reilly on Monday
accused Gov. Mitt Romney and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey of exploiting for
political purposes the family of two Southborough sisters who were killed
in a car accident last October.
Speaking to reporters following an anti-crime press conference that he and
Healey attended, Reilly said the lieutenant governor and governor commented
on the case before they knew the facts and further questioned Healey’s
character for not apologizing to the family.
“This is about the privacy of a family to be protected in situations like
that,” Reilly said. “Anyone that would exploit this family’s situation and
this family’s grief, for whatever reason and were part of this, have caused
a great deal of harm and they should be ashamed of themselves. Anyone,
including anyone who had anything to do with this, making charges,
accusations.”
Reilly further said Healey was “absolutely among” the people whom he was
referring to. When asked by a reporter what it says about Healey that she
has not apologized to the family, Reilly said: “It tells you all you need
to know about her. All you need to know.”
Reilly’s comments came after Healey’s Sunday morning appearance on CBS4’s
“Keller At Large,” during which Healey alleged Reilly “managed to stifle
and probably obstruct a criminal investigation into whether or not there
was a violation of our social host law, the idea that people shouldn’t be
offering alcohol to minors or providing a place where minors could consume
alcohol.”
On the show, Healey, Reilly’s potential opponent in this year’s race for
governor, responded to a question regarding Reilly’s involvement in an
investigation into whether Shauna and Meghan Murphy were drunk the night of
the fatal accident. Reilly last week confirmed he called Worcester County
District Attorney John Conte in November to ensure the Murphy sisters’
medical records were not released to the media.
“The lieutenant governor obviously didn’t have the facts, the governor
didn’t have the facts,” Reilly said. “They never should have stepped into
this. They never should have exploited this family’s grief, but they did.
The harm is done now.”
Healey’s campaign office fired back at Reilly, claiming the attorney
general initially “interjected politics” into the situation, said Timothy
O’Brien, a Healey campaign spokesman.
“He’s the one who started this,” O’Brien said. “There are other people that
are raising questions. This isn’t just Kerry Healey. A lot of people want
to know what his role was.”
Northborough Police Chief Mark Leahy, who was investigating the case
because the Murphy sisters were returning from a house in Northborough when
the accident occurred, told the Associated Press last week the
investigation was impeded by Conte’s decision not to release the medical
records to his department.

Leahy today declined to comment on the case; news outlets have reported
that Conte says he provided the medical records to the Northborough Police.
The investigation was closed last Thursday.
In response to Healey's comments that he may have obstructed a criminal
investigation, Reilly today said: “That’s a very strong thing to say. And
if you say something like that you should be able to back it up, and she
cannot back it up. She stepped out here and made comments, as did the
governor, they made comments they cannot back up, before they had the facts.”
Healey today declined to elaborate on her call for Reilly to explain his
involvement in the case or on the comments she made during the show, which
was taped on Friday morning, saying: “I asked that the questions be
answered, and that’s always appropriate for public officials.”
Reilly has maintained that his involvement in the case was an effort to
protect the family. Christopher Murphy, Shauna and Meghan’s father,
contributed $300 to Reilly’s gubernatorial campaign last June.
O’Brien further defended the lieutenant governor’s inquiry into Reilly’s
role in the investigation. “Tom Reilly has not been forthcoming about his
involvement in this investigation. The public and the lieutenant governor
have every right to ask the questions.”
Romney and Healey raised several questions last week after news reports of
Reilly’s involvement surfaced. Romney questioned whether Reilly had “gotten
the message” that Beacon Hill is trying to crack down on drunken driving,
and while acknowledging he didn’t know the full circumstances of the
accident, further asked: “Why would we ever want to hush up the truth about
alcohol in an accident?”

1/9/2006 6:09:05 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [3] |

Tuesday, January 10, 2006 7:44:01 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Imagine, a polite, dignified gubernatorial race between mild-mannered Deval Patrick and mild-mannered Christy Mihos. It actually might make Massachusetts politics civil again. All you would need is Carla Howell and her Uzi to blow the whole deal.

tony schinella

Wednesday, January 11, 2006 5:43:22 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Boston Finance Commission has not made available its reports on the web. The BFC should make available its reports on the web and the names of appointees to the Commission.

dsaklad@zurich.csail.mit.edu

Friday, January 13, 2006 10:55:09 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Absolutely, it's time to move on. I think Lehigh's story in today's definitely summed it up.

ATTORNEY GENERAL Thomas Reilly has been beset by that most dangerous and damning of political phenomena: Raised Questions.

Nor does it seem to matter that those questions have been answered to what should be a high degree of journalistic and public satisfaction.

Perhaps misinformation and innuendo are all we can expect of talk radio.

But shouldn't Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey know better?

Healey, like Mitt Romney, has been one of those raising questions about a call Reilly made concerning the accident that claimed the lives of two Southborough teenagers.

Appearing on CBS4's ''Keller@Large," she said that Reilly ''managed to stifle and probably obstruct a criminal investigation into whether or not there was a violation of our social host law."

Let's put this as clearly as possible: There is simply no credible evidence or allegation that Reilly in any way tried to or did obstruct a criminal investigation.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Healey refused to address her claim beyond saying this: ''I asked for the questions to be answered and that's always appropriate for public officials."

It is completely inappropriate, however, for public officials to make reckless and unfounded charges. And as I noted to Healey, saying someone had obstructed justice was a very strong charge to make.

''Those were not my words," she replied, declining further comment.

They were close enough for her to know what I meant, I think.

How, exactly, does she justify her charge? Tim O'Brien, Healey's gubernatorial campaign manager, offers nothing substantive, but notes, repeatedly, that Healey isn't alone in her concerns.

''She is not the only one who thinks it raises questions," he said.

Ah, those questions. But what questions that relate to her claim of obstruction remain unanswered here?

Here's what we credibly know of the events.

On Oct. 13, after the girls had been seen drinking at a party in Northborough, Shauna Murphy, 17, and her sister Meghan, 15, were killed when their vehicle crashed into a utility pole in Southborough. An investigation ensued by the two police departments into the crash and the possibility that the Social Host Responsibility Law had been violated. That law says a homeowner or party host can be held liable if a minor drinks in that home.

By his own account, Bob Davis, a friend and neighbor of the Murphys, and organizer of a June fund-raiser that netted $14,000 for Reilly, called the AG to ask whether the autopsy reports were public information. (Christopher Murphy, father of the girls, gave $300 for that fund-raiser.) In mid-November, Reilly called Worcester District Attorney John Conte, whose office played a subsidiary role in the investigation, to note that the autopsy records were private and should not be released.

Davis says he didn't ask Reilly to call Conte. Still, the AG has certainly opened himself to accusations that he made the call as a favor for friends and donors.

But well before the apparent date of Reilly's call, Jeffrey Goldstein, the veteran Worcester County assistant district attorney who advised local police, had told the Southborough police that the reports were private. That advice, according to an appreciative letter from the Southborough department, came on Nov. 2.

Whether an autopsy report should be released to the press is, of course, a vastly different matter from whether a law-enforcement investigation has been obstructed. On the question of autopsy results, Goldstein says the Southborough police were given the toxicology results by phone by the state medical examiner's office no later than Nov. 2, and that the Southborough department shared those results with Northborough police no later than the end of November. That was before Conte's office itself had the written results, says Goldstein.

Despite an initial AP story that stated, without attribution, that Conte refused to give the autopsy report to local police, Northborough Police Chief Mark Leahy has since told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that Conte never refused to provide the actual reports, and rather that, he, Leahy, hadn't asked for them.

Further, Goldstein, who reviewed the possible social-host-law violations, says he only learned about Reilly's call to his boss by reading the paper, after he had recommended against any prosecution.

Healey would know all that if she had bothered to call Conte's office before making her claim.

She didn't. Instead, she offered a baseless charge against Reilly -- a charge she now declines to defend, retract, or even discuss.

And at this point, that's what really raises questions here

quincy boy

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