The ethics case against several top Massachusetts law enforcement officials, including the Worcester County DA and a former state police colonel, in regards to the alleged altered police report for the 2017 OUI arrest for a judge’s daughter was dismissed Wednesday.
The State Ethics Commission said Wednesday that it could not prove that DA Joseph Early, Senior Assistant Jeffrey Travers, former State Police Colonel Richard McKeon and former State Police Major Susan Anderson violated a conflict of interest law during their actions relating to the police report and arrest of Alli Bibaud.
Bibuad, the daughter of a Dudley District Court judge, was arrested for operating under the influence in October 2017. The arrest report stated that Bibuad made profane comments and that she allegedly admitted to sexual acts in exchange for drugs. Later, two state troopers came forward and stated they were forced to make changes to BiBaud’s arrest report, redacting some of the comments attributed to Bibaud.
The Commission’s Enforcement Division began adjudicatory proceedings against Early, Travers, McKeon, and Anderson in June 2020. The investigation was to determine whether the four men used their positions of authority to secure the judge and the daughter with favorable privileges.
“After receiving a copy of the arrest report, Travers allegedly notified Early that the report contained the daughter’s sexually explicit statements and statement that her father was a judge. Early, the chief law enforcement officer in Worcester County, then called McKeon to alert him to the contents of the report. The following day, Early allegedly told McKeon that McKeon could revise the report to remove the sexually explicit statements and the reference to the judge,” a release from the Ethics Commission stated at the time. “McKeon allegedly issued an order through the State Police chain of command that the arresting trooper revise the arrest report by removing the sexually explicit statements and the statement in which the daughter identified her father as a judge.”
It is against ethics law for public employees to use -- or even attempt to use -- their position to obtain an unwarranted privilege.
State Police Colonel Richard McKeon was forced to retire in 2017 due to the allegations.
On Wednesday, the Ethics Commissions stated the investigation found that altering the police report would not have presented substantial value to the four officials.
“Although we have reached our determination as to the failure of proof on the substantial value element, thus defeating the [section] 23(b)(2)(ii) claims, we take this opportunity to note that to the extent there were any concerns about protecting [the judge’s daughter] from prejudicial pretrial publicity in order to preserve her constitutional right to a fair trial, the better practice would have been to do so by filing a motion to redact to avoid the specter of special or favorable treatment raised by this case,” the commission stated Wednesday.
The Commission also found that it was not proved that Early, Travers, McKeon, and Anderson violated the conflict of interest law’s prohibition against public employees “acting in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to conclude that they would act or fail to act in performing an official duty because of kinship, rank, or undue influence from another person.”
The Ethics Commission’s full statement can found on their website.
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