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Combined Readings: Ma. AG Maura Healey and Bridgewater State University (2016 - 2017).
Two articles
MassLive, Feb. 2, 2016
Judge rips into Attorney General Maura Healey's office, asking, 'Who speaks for the children,' over alleged Bridgewater State University rape case
- Original: https://www.masslive.com/news/2016/02/judge_rips_into_attorney_gener.html
- Archival: https://perma.cc/3V7L-MU5G
MassLive, Feb. 2, 2016
Attorney General Maura Healey: Office will work with families of Bridgewater State University child rape case
- Original: https://www.masslive.com/news/boston/2016/02/attorney_general_maura_healey_1.html
- Archival: https://perma.cc/V278-RQP9
The Enterprise News
April 6, 2017
Healey defends handling of daycare rape records request
Original: https://www.enterprisenews.com/news/20170406/healey-defends-handling-of-daycare-rape-records-request
Archival: https://perma.cc/U9J5-GH23
Judge rips into Attorney General Maura Healey's office, asking, 'Who speaks for the children,' over alleged Bridgewater State University rape case
Attorney General Maura Healey (Republican Photo by Mark M. Murray) (Mark Murray//The Republican)
By Gintautas Dumcius gdumcius@masslive.com on February 01, 2016 at 3:03 PM, updated February 01, 2016 at 4:21 PM
BOSTON – Ripping into "petty bureaucrats scurrying to protect themselves," Superior Court
Associate Justice Dennis Curran denied an attempt by the office of Attorney General Maura Healey to dismiss a lawsuit filed by parents seeking information in alleged violent rape case at Bridgewater State University's child day-care program.
In his fiery ruling, Curran said the parents of the children were seeking public records about an alleged cover-up of "heinous" crimes of rape and sexual molestation by a state-paid teacher who was in charge of the Children's Center, the day-care program at Bridgewater State University.
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The state has "stonewalled" the parents' efforts and now the families have been "traumatized twice," the judge said.
Curran lashed into Healey's office, asking, "Who speaks for the children in this case."
"Not the Attorney General's office, charged with protecting the public safety, not a few university administrators who seem to have forgotten the original purpose of an educational institution: to seek the truth," Curran added.
The ruling was noted by the Brockton Enterprise. The response from Healey's office is
available here.
"[Only] certain university officials know the depth of criminality that happened and the cover-up that allowed this alleged depravity to occur and fester," Curran wrote in his ruling. "That knowledge is uniquely within the state's power to provide. But they do not wish to disclose it."
The parents, identified as John and Jane Doe Nos. 1-3, allege that supervisory personnel were aware of the sex crimes and yet did nothing to report them, the judge said.
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Curran accused the state of using a "tired, decades-old, scarecrow tactic of claiming that if
this court allows the relief requested here, it would 'open the floodgates' to further such litigation."
But Curran said the case is "unique."
"However, if the relief granted in this case means that other little children, raped by their state-employed caregivers, to whom parents have entrusted their loves of their life, will find out the hideous details of an alleged cover-up of their children's rape, then let justice prevail," he wrote.
He continued later in the ruling:
|
What has become of us, as a people. Where have we gone so terribly wrong. How have we allowed such cruelty, indifference and pettiness to rule us.
This case is about little children – at least one of whom was allegedly raped with violence by a state-employed caregiver. |
He finishes the ruling, which was issued late last week, by paraphrasing a quote from the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: "Sunshine is a powerful disinfectant."
The man accused of the rapes is 22-year-old Kyle Laughlin of Wrentham, who was arrested last year year, according to the Enterprise.
This post was updated at 4:20 p.m. with the response from Healey office's.
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Attorney General Maura Healey: Oice will work with families of Bridgewater State University child rape case (Video)
By Gintautas Dumcius | gdumcius@masslive.com Follow on Twitter
on February 02, 2016 at 4:31 PM, updated February 02, 2016 at 4:32 PM
BOSTON – Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said her office will work with
families following a Superior Court judge’s order in a case delving into an alleged child rape at Bridgewater State University’s child day-care program.
Judge Dennis Curran excoriated state officials, including Healey’s office, for a motion to dismiss a lawsuit sought by parents looking for information in order to determine the nature and extent of a potential cover-up. Curran rejected the state’s motion in a passionate order that asked, “What has become of us, as a people”?
The parents, identified as John and Jane Doe Nos. 1-3, are seeking information to help lay the groundwork for a future civil lawsuit on a potential cover-up and alleged failure to report sex crimes at Bridgewater State University. A state-paid teacher allegedly raped and molested children while at the Children’s Center, the university’s day-care program.
Healey, whose office is called upon to defend state entities like the university in court, called the case “tragic” and the allegations “horrible.” Her office established a child welfare protection division after she assumed the office of attorney general in 2015.
Her office has worked closely with lawyers for the Bridgewater State University case’s families before the information-seeking lawsuit was filed “so that we could make as many documents available as possible,” Healey said.
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“Obviously we’ve read and we’re reviewing the judge’s order. We’re going to produce
documents and work to get the appropriate information to families,” Healey said. “But this
has been an ongoing effort, ongoing work, and our office has been engaged in working with counsel for the families right from the outset and we’ll continue to do that.”
Curran, the judge, wrote, “Who speaks for the children in this case. Not the Attorney General’s office, charged with protecting the public safety, not a few university administrators who seem to have forgotten the original purpose of an educational institution: to seek the Truth.”
Asked whether the judge was too harsh in his ruling, Healey said, “I’m not going to characterize the judge’s ruling. What I will say is that our office was, is and continues to be committed to making sure that families have the information that they need and we work to do that quickly and expeditiously, and we will do just that.”
Read Superior Court judge's epic blasting of state officials in case related to alleged Bridgewater State University rape
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Healey defends handling of daycare rape records request
By Marc Larocque
Enterprise Staff Writer
Posted Apr 6, 2017 at 5:05 PM
Updated Apr 6, 2017 at 5:12 PM
BRIDGEWATER – Referring to it as a technical dispute about the process of providing public records, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey continues to defend the actions of her office more than a year ago, when one of her subordinates tried to block the release of emails connected to the Bridgewater State University daycare rape case.
Attorneys for parents of four children who attended the daycare center are now awaiting a judge’s order that will compel Healey and Bridgewater State to release a year’s worth of emails of people connected to the daycare center on the school’s campus, where Kyle Loughlin was arrested in 2015 and charged with raping two boys. Prosecutors later said there were three pre-school aged victims.
The attorneys for the parents hope the documents, which will be reviewed and redacted as needed before being released, will shed light on how the sexual abuse at the school-run center could have happened, and if there was any cover-up involved.
Loughlin, a former BSU student and daycare center worker, recently pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and abuse of a child, three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, and one count of larceny from a building. He was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison.
The attorneys, as well as The Enterprise, had requested records from the center more than a year ago. Bridgewater State responded at the time by telling the newspaper it would cost $60,000 to provide them, and Healey’s office responded by asking a judge to dismiss a case brought by the parents’ attorneys seeking the same records.
During an editorial board meeting on Wednesday, Healey said she had long sought transparency in the case, but questioned the process by which the attorneys were seeking the emails. Healey’s office argued that the parents should follow through with a public records request, instead of going to court for discovery of evidence in an
“unusual” lawsuit that was unattached to any punitive litigation. That, she said, is why she tried to have the case dismissed. Speaking to The Enterprise, Healey also cited privacy laws as a concern.
“There was a good reason why we took the actions that we did,” Healey said. “A lot of times, it’s not about the specifics of a matter. It’s about a certain principal that we actually need to maintain and uphold. But I’m somebody who’s always going to push for transparency. The production of information – I actually have to follow the law. Sometimes that doesn’t please everybody.”
Lawyers for the parents said that a public records request they filed did not result in any progress and the process was not practical.
Superior Court Judge Dennis Curran refused Healey’s request to dismiss the case seeking the records in February 2016, and heaped scorn on the “petty bureaucrats” of her office for putting their interests and those of BSU officials above those of the little children.
“Who speaks for the children in this case?” Curran wrote in his decision. “Not the attorney general’s office, charged with protecting the public safety, not a few university administrators who seem to have forgotten the original purpose of an educational institution: to seek the Truth. Instead, we only see bureaucrats scurrying to protect themselves.”
Healey’s office did not appeal Curran’s decision.
At the editorial board meeting, Healey did not comment on the judge’s criticism, and said, “the good news is those documents and information are going to be turned over and provided.”
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