Boston waits for Dennis White decision as heat intensifies on Marty Walsh
The city remains in a holding pattern as a Suffolk Superior Court judge didn’t rule on the Dennis White case by the end of the workweek — and pressure builds on Labor Secretary Martin Walsh, who appointed White police commissioner.
No ruling turned up on Friday from Judge Heidi Brieger, who had held an hourlong hearing on Thursday on the suspended police commissioner’s request to bar the city from firing him.
Acting Mayor Kim Janey has been trying to oust White since last week over abuse allegations from the 1990s, but he thwarted her, at least temporarily, by filing suit.
White and his friend former Police Commissioner William Gross this week dragged former Mayor Walsh firmly back into the hot seat when both of them submitted sworn statements to the judge that Walsh would have known about Internal Affairs allegations against White from the 1990s when Walsh promoted him to commissioner in February.
When the affidavits filed by the cops became public on Tuesday, Walsh put out a statement through the Department of Labor firmly denying he’d known about the abuse allegations.
The White investigation has begun to gain national headlines centered around Walsh, who appointed White in February. Some people — including U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a Salem Democrat, who told The Boston Globe that Walsh should resign if he’d known about the allegations. On Friday, CNN, Business Insider and other media outlets began to run articles following local headlines about Walsh.
On Friday afternoon, Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins waded into the matter in an interview on GBH Greater Boston Radio, saying the police affidavits hold more weight in her mind than Walsh’s statement.
“Somebody signed something under the pains and penalties of perjury,” Rollins told the radio station. “For me, that has to trump — I love using that word — that has to trump somebody just saying, ‘yeah, that never happened.'”
But U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch on Friday defended his political ally Walsh, insisting to reporters that there’s no way the former mayor would have appointed White if he’d known.
“I think it was natural to go to the number two person,” Lynch said when asked at an unrelated press conference in Boston. “And I think that it’s as simple as that — that they went to the No. 2 person figuring, well, if you’re the No. 2 person, you’re vetted in a sense — and that was a mistake. But I am sure that Mayor Walsh did not know about the allegations.”
Asked if Walsh should resign if he did in fact know about the allegations, Lynch said, “No — look, I’m sure that he did not know the details.”
The Department of Labor didn’t respond to a request for comment from Walsh on Friday.
Janey at an event on Friday wouldn’t say much about the case, telling reporters, “we’ll see what the judge says.” Her lawyer said in court that if the judge doesn’t side with White, Janey will move again to fire the commissioner.
Asked about Walsh, Janey said the city and police department need to keep moving forward, adding, “This is what was presented to me. I’m not sure what the process was leading up to this point. There are conflicting statements regarding that. But here we are.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3bKNe4g
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