Good Cop, Bad Cops, Pt II

(By American Zen’s Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari)  

(Disclaimer: The proprietor of this blog and Mr. Wilson have an ongoing years-long friendship, in which the former has benefited on several occasions by the generosity of the latter. However, that in no way, shape or form has influenced the blog owner’s decision to post an article about his case nor the content of what is written below.)

Another sign that the fix was in was when Tpr. Wilson's legal representation was arbitrarily handed off to another lawyer. When he'd voiced his suspicions, he was essentially told to take it or pay his own legal fees. During the farce of a hearing, it had become obvious to Wilson that the witnesses were protected from giving the contradictory statements they were already on record as having made. Part of the interference was carried out by his own attorney.
     Yet, despite the protection racket buzzing between both counsel's tables, the Franklin cops were stupid enough to let their contradictions get into the transcript. At one point, the officer alleging assault was so incompetent during his testimony he was actually allowed to read from his own inaccurate report!
      As all this was taking place, Tpr. Wilson was on a bubble- It was at this time that Beacon Hill was ratifying a bill that would give troopers facing disciplinary hearings enhanced protections such as greater appeal rights in the event of a negative finding. Only then would a trooper get a "point-of-fact" appeal.
     The court neatly sidestepped what would've, could've and should've been an enhanced appellate process for Tpr. Wilson by simply hiding the judgment and not forwarding it . Instead, he was given an administrative general order informing of a guilty finding and a four month suspension. He was not given paperwork to sign nor was he offered any and his legal counsel offered him no advice re a court appeal.
     He applied for unemployment benefits simply to test whether the board's judgment was correct (in MA, a state employee actually accused of wrongdoing is denied unemployment benefits.), relying on the reports and hearing transcripts. When the State Police attorney tried to suppress the transcript from the record he was, in Tpr. Wilson's own words, "laughingly over-ruled." During the hearing the state police attorney produced the suppressed "finding and recommendation" document that should've been released immediately after the disciplinary hearing's finding, a case summation justifying a guilty finding,  that mandated suspension and anger management counseling. That was the first time Wilson realized this critical document existed.

The Other Franklin Coverup

Trooper Wilson returned to work in September 2002, four months later and, despite the $9000 in DET benefits, $25,000 poorer. To use his own phrase, the reception from his colleagues was "obsequious" and was told he was fully expected to just "put it all behind (him)." Instead, he filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, the Commonwealth's legal watchdog agency. He did so to force his first attorney to admit, under penalty of perjury, that he was also simultaneously representing the accusing agency (the Franklin Police Union), which, of course, he eventually did. That, however, didn't stop him from lying to the Board that he'd informed Tpr. Wilson of this pesky conflict of interest (Remember, he was cagey and vague about that when directly asked).
     Furthermore, this shyster lied again by saying that he suspected Wilson was going to allege racial bias, which he never planned to do because it was not a racial-based incident (ironically, this is perhaps the very reason for the Franklin Police filing the charges against Wilson). Not only is he strident on this point, his allegations against the Franklin PD were always for defamation, assault and battery and false imprisonment.
     Even without my help via innuendoes, you,  Constant Reader, would at least deeply suspect that a conspiracy had long since been implemented. In case there had been any doubts in Trooper Wilson's mind, they essentially vanished when he got the official response from his first attorney (the one with conflict of interest problems) in January 2003, 25 months after the original incident. Seeking a professional, impartial opinion, he went to a lawyer friend for his input.
     This friend's opinion was that any subsequent legal complaint would originate from Wilson's agency's failure to provide the finding and ruling document as mandated by law. In fact, he'd called this a civil rights violation. The facts of the incident of assault and false imprisonment would become fair game and legally germane. Shame this lawyer couldn't represent Wilson because his expertise was in real estate.
     He would be virtually the only honest lawyer Wilson would ever consult on this matter, as future installments of this series will show.

Stepping on Jackbooted Toes

Now, this is where it really begins to get interesting, Faithful Reader. Because by now it had become obvious to Wilson, as it should have to you, that his case was beginning to get enough attention so that he was stepping on the toes of some powerful shoes, namely the Colonel Superintendent of the MA State Police (more on him later, as well), his assistant (the axe-wielder in these cases), the embattled Chief of the Franklin PD, two law firms and the MA State Trooper's Union, ironically enough, State Police Association of Massachusetts (SPAM).
     To summarize, all these individuals and entities would be complicit in covering up the abuse of an African American State Trooper by three white Franklin cops (even though, again, Tpr. Wilson never intended on pulling the race card. But one has to admit, from a purely political correctness standpoint the optics were horrible). His second attorney, personally hand-picked by his first sans his client's permission, was a partner in Finneran Byrne and Dreschler (Yes, that Finneran, the fabulously corrupt Speaker of the Massachusetts State House of Representatives who was also the lead partner in the firm).
     Finneran has long since been disbarred for multiple acts of corruption and legal misconduct (incredibly, none of it pertaining to Tpr Wilson).
     Without trying to scale Trooper Wilson to Dickensian dimensions, by this time it had become obvious that not only was he not guilty and not given his day in court, he had by this time already suffered $25,000 in financial losses and had been suspended for four months when, in reality, he was the only victim in this case.
     Mr. Wilson's victimization would only continue and escalate, as you will read about in the next installment.
(Back to Part 1
(Continued at Part 3.)