By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions

Drip, drip, drip, drip

Boston Globe reporter Donovan Slack ferrets out more details about how Cape Cod congressional candidate Jeff Perry handled a child-molesting police officer under his command two decades ago.

The key takeaway involves then-Wareham police officer Scott Flanagan’s strip-search of a 14-year-old girl near a cranberry bog in 1991. Perry, then a sergeant on the force, was on the scene. (Flanagan also strip-searched a 16-year-old girl on a different occasion. Perry was not present, but accompanied Flanagan on a controversial visit to the girl’s parents’ home later that night.)

Last month, Donovan notes, Perry said he saw nothing with respect to the 14-year-old: “It did not occur in my presence.” Yet that contradicts what Perry said at the time, according to Donovan, who writes:

But in sworn testimony in a deposition for civil suits filed by the two girls’ families, Perry said he was in a position to have seen and heard everything and that it did not happen, according to a law enforcement specialist, Lou Reiter, who reviewed Perry’s deposition, wrote a report, and testified for one of the plaintiffs.

Flanagan later confessed that he had strip-searched both girls, pleading guilty to criminal charges. The contradictory statements — Perry saying nothing happened, and Flanagan later admitting it did — led Reiter to conclude that Perry was “not being truthful.’’

Perry, a Republican state representative from Sandwich, is hoping to succeed Democratic congressman Bill Delahunt, who’s retiring. But who’s that knocking at the door? Why, it’s former state treasurer Joe Malone, who’s running against Perry in the Republican primary.

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7 Comments

  1. C. E. Stead

    Point of information – there is a third Republican who qualified for the primary. Ray Kasperowicz.

    I always wonder why news organizations ignore candidates other than their chosen ‘front runners’ – it takes a LOT to qualify as a Congressional candidate, as opposed to the miniscule 150 signatures needed to run for State Rep.

  2. There are actually four Republicans running in the 10th, according to the Elections Division office:

    Kasperowicz, Malone, Perry and Robert Hayden III. Sure, the race is probably between Malone and Perry. But that doesn’t mean the other two should be ignored.
    In fact, C.E. Stead, I can say from personal experience that it is not easy collecting the 2,000-plus signatures to get on a Congressional ballot!

    William Keating and Robert O’Leary are on the ballot for the Dems.

    Indies don’t have to have their paperwork for Congressional seats in to town clerk offices until Aug. 3.

  3. Dan, still think this is a non-story?

  4. C. E. Stead

    Tony – I had thought that Hayden didn’t return his papers by the 6/1 deadline, but you’re right – he’s on the FEC web site.

    He and Kasperowicz both have potential to garner protest primary votes.

  5. Jack Sullivan

    FYI, Hayden is a former Suffolk ADA and is an environmental attorney for the state now. He is not insubstantive. Also son of former BPD Supt. and Lawrence police chief Bob Hayden. Helluva hockey player, too. People may ignore him at their own peril.

  6. C. E. Stead

    Jack – he has to win a primary first. He’s a no-show at Republican town committee meetings and events, and that IS the primary he has to win to appear on the ballot.

  7. Jack Sullivan

    @C.E., I understand that and to some extent agree. My note is an observation, not a prediction. If Perry is damaged by this stuff and Malone is the target of the Tea Party-generated anti-establishment fervor (I don’t believe it’s anti-incumbent, as many are proselytizing), then Hayden becomes a very attractive option. He got his signatures with a pretty impressive grassroots organizational effort and in relatively short order. He may not have political tools, but he’s got ideological bona fides and a CV that would be very appealing in a GOP primary, especially here. And as Brown showed, three months is not a too-small window to ramp up and win any election. That’s all I’m saying.

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