The Blue Memory Hole of the Massachusetts State Police

Massachusetts State Police Col. Richard McKeon, left, and Deputy Superintendent Francis Hughes WBZ-TV, Massachusetts State Police

     The infamous memory hole of American law enforcement is as much a marvel to behold as what they hallucinate. From a self-perceived war on the police to nonexistent firearms, the mnemonic abilities of law enforcement is so susceptible to error, it's a wonder more cops aren't fired for unfitness for duty.

     Then there's the other law enforcement memory hole, which are deliberate omissions and using coercement to achieve an artificial memory hole to shield some powerful people and their own. One story reluctantly making the rounds of the shitty Massachusetts media is a reaffirmation that the original crime is never nearly as bad as the subsequent coverup. Watergate taught us that, as will Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia investigation.

     Our story into the lesions of law enforcement memories starts on October 16th with a simple crack-up on I-190 (the Mass Pike) in Worcester. The responding officer, one Trooper Ryan Sceviour, found a barely coherent 30 year-old woman under the influence of something powerful. She'd reeked of alcohol, failed several field sobriety tests and was yelling that her father was "a fucking judge and he's gonna kill me!" Then, after confessing to the Trooper that she'd performed oral sex on several men to feed her heroin addiction, she then offered him sex for leniency. The first of two BAC tests revealed a blood alcohol content of .224, three times over the legal limit. Syringes were spilling out of her totaled car.

     After her booking, Trooper Sceviour filled out what was supposed to be a routine arrest report stating the facts. He didn't believe her at first when she said her father was a judge until it came to light that she was Alli Bibaud, who's the daughter of Dudley District Judge Timothy Bibaud, who. ironically, presides over the drug court in Worcester.

     He learned that two days later when a superior from the Massachusetts State Police showed up at Sceviour's home and ordered him to drive 90 miles to he could falsify the arrest report and expunge from it any mention of sex. drugs or her father being a judge. He was told, furthermore, that the order came straight from the top: State Police Colonel Richard McKeon, then the head of the Massachusetts State Police. That's odd enough as it is, that the head of a state police force would personally get involved in a routine arrest report. He later found two voicemails, from a Lt. James Fogarty, bringing the total of high-ranking State Troopers involved in this conspiracy to at least three. And who's #3?
     When Sceviour arrived in Holden, he voiced his complaints and reservations aloud to his commander, Major Susan Anderson, head of the Holden barracks. So, while Col. McKeon may have ordered the falsification, it was Major Anderson who'd orchestrated it at the barracks level. He told his superior, "If this was some random person and not a judge's kid, none of this would be happening," with which she'd readily agreed before saying. "We all have bosses." Reluctantly, Sceviour rewrote the report under the proviso that he write "revised" on it. And that's when things started to spin out of control. It ought to be mentioned here that the sergeant who'd approved the original report was reprimanded for doing his job.      
     The story managed to fly under the radar for a while until it was picked up by some second-rate bomb thrower blogger named Turtle Boy here in central Massachusetts. But that was enough to get the ball rolling and the story was soon carried by WBZ, WBUR, CBS national and local, the Globe (albeit belatedly), and local right wing icon Howie Carr in the tabloid Boston Herald. By last Tuesday, Col. McKeon abruptly announced his retirement, prompting his Deputy, Lt. Col. Francis Hughes, to also turn in his credentials. It was the first time this had happened since 2004 during the virtually underreported Antone Wilson fiasco.
     A week and a half ago, Troopers Sceviour and Rei (a drug detection expert) sued the Massachusetts State Police in federal court (which means all the details will be made public). By the 14th, McKeon was out and his deputy a half a step behind him.
     There's an old saying in law enforcement: "If it's not in the report, it didn't happen." Until it does. Before his abrupt retirement, McKeon actually defended his ordering the arrest report to be rewritten, "citing his compassion for addicts and a desire to treat everyone with 'courtesy and respect'.” I guess his heart is especially tender toward the white, coddled, spoiled, drug-addicted spawn of city judges.

     There's no hard evidence that Judge Bibaud ordered his daughter's arrest report to be rewritten or even mentioned it to state police or justice officials. But it's difficult if not outright impossible to see why McKeon, a 31 year veteran, would put his career on the line by taking the initiative to do this on behalf of a judge and get other high-ranking State Troopers involved with the coverup.

     But, as is usual with federal cases, I've got a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg and you can bet your ass I'm going to stay on top of this story.