Incident #1: Ashfield Police Sergeant Kristina Nunez reports that sometime after January 8, 2010, she got a call from a townsperson saying that he has old marijuana plants, originally part of Ashfield Police Department evidence, in his barn. What does she do? Nothing? We know she does not immediately call the State Police to go to that resident's home to determine if, in fact, there are marijuana plants in the barn and, if there are, to retrieve them.
About a week later on election day, while the children attend school, townspeople see this same resident at Sanderson leaving the school building with the only police officer on duty there for the election. Both come out of the building, go to the resident's truck parked at the school next to the cruiser. The officer is seen taking something in a black plastic bag out of the passenger side of the truck and putting it into the backseat of the cruiser. Later this same day another townsperson going to vote sees the Sergeant outside the school building talking with the officer who took the black plastic bag from the resident's truck. Does she immediately contact the State Police?
Shortly thereafter, the Sergeant confirms that it is the old marijuana plants in the black plastic bag and that they are now in the police department.
Almost four weeks later, the Sergeant speaks to another townsperson stating that this investigation is not on the top of her priority list, that she does not want the incident to get out, and that no one is going to go to jail over this. She says that she has made a pact with herself that, within the next week, she will conclude her investigation and that she is proud of how she has been handling it. That conversation was two weeks ago. Do we know if her investigation even happened? Do we know if any charges have been brought? Do we know if the Sergeant ever contacted the State Police for this investigation?
Incident #2: This past Saturday afternoon a townsperson up at the town garage finds a set of keys on the ground behind the Ashfield Police Department SUV. This townsperson sees the keys behind the a rear tire in the snow and dirt. She picks them up and immediately delivers them to a selectboard member who secures them in Town Hall.
The townsperson then posts her satirical comments about the incident on this blog, describing what could have happened had someone else discovered the keys.
Around 11:30 p.m. that same night, the townsperson discovers that the State Police are looking for her. She finds out that a state trooper has already been to her home. While there, the state trooper questions the other person living there. This person tells the state trooper that the person he's looking for is not there. The state trooper asks him about the townsperson's whereabouts and her mental and emotional stability. He requests entry into the home and into her living quarters to look for her. He mentions the word felony three times in relation to this event. He says that he does not want to arrest her, or have to fill out the paperwork, but just wants to get the keys back. He asks why does she hate this police department? Then the state trooper says he has better things to do than chase someone with the keys to a disabled police cruiser.
Not finding her, the state trooper then goes to another resident's home and questions the person living there about the townsperson's whereabouts. The state trooper tells this resident that there is an issue about some keys that the Sergeant has told him were on the front tire of an Ashfield police vehicle. In leaving, the state trooper states that if the police would put their keys where they belong, in a lock box, there wouldn't be a problem.
The townsperson, now aware that the State Police want to speak to her, contacts the barracks at midnight assuring them that she gave the keys to a selectboard member immediately after finding them. Case closed? Or does this one become "top" on her priority list?
Isn't it interesting how one investigation seems to languish while the other has such immediacy? And they wonder why we are outraged and fearful.
Ricki Carroll
Doug Cranson
Doug Field
Wayne Gardner
Steven Greenman
Sherrill Jourdan
Paullette Leukhardt
Don Lesure
Jim Maloney
Karen Sullivan
Tony Virgilio
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The favoritism that you describe so well here shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to town politics lately. It was already evident in the way John Svoboda’s harassment was loudly and publically condemned while Seth Cranston’s harassment was swept under the rug. One of the systemic problems that needs to be fixed before we can move forward is the way that friends of people in power are allowed to get away with whatever they want while perceived enemies are attacked by any means possible.
ReplyDeleteWhat strikes me more about the keys matter is the means that were used. Suzanne Corbett found the keys and returned them to the select board, which was the responsible thing to do. Then she wrote a satirical blog entry that embarrassed Sergeant Nunez. Because of that, Sergeant Nunez tried to have Suzanne arrested for a felony.
If that last paragraph doesn’t scare you, you need to go back and read it again. Our police sergeant, whom we pay with our tax dollars, tried to have a responsible citizen arrested on felony charges for writing a satirical blog entry.
No matter how you look at it, this is chilling. Either Sergeant Nunez knew that the felony charges would never be taken seriously, in which case she deliberately abused her police power to silence a political opponent. Or she believed she could make the felony charges stick, in which case, if she’d had her way, Suzanne Corbett would be in jail right now and possibly facing serious prison time. For writing a satirical blog piece!
Always remember, this isn’t just about Suzanne. This could happen to any of us, at any time.
This has to stop. Now.
David King