Quincy News: Massachusetts State Police internal probe clears leaders in hiring of trooper with drug-dealing past

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Leigha Genduso, unindicted co-conspirator in drug trafficking case
A Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe image
– News from elsewhere covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

Massachusetts State Police internal probe clears leaders in hiring of trooper with drug-dealing past.

As reported in the Boston Globe, “(a)n internal Massachusetts State Police investigation has cleared agency officials of wrongdoing for hiring a trooper with a drug-dealing past, and blamed her for not disclosing her role as a key witness in a high-profile trafficking case.”

A disgrace to force?
A file photo
“Trooper Leigha Genduso resigned (late, ed.) Friday afternoon upon reviewing the internal investigation, which her attorney called ‘a coverup from day one.’ She received a dishonorable discharge, which she said she will appeal.”

“Questions about how Genduso, an unindicted co-conspirator in a major marijuana trafficking case, became a civilian dispatcher in 2008 and then a trooper erupted earlier this year.”

Mr. Warm and Fuzzy
A The Republic image
Needless to say, Howie Carr had a field day with how this late-breaking news was rolled out by the State Police well after business hours on a Friday in late August.

For example, on top of state police announcing Ms. Genduso’s resignation after being suspended without pay last spring, Howie harped on how surely Genduso living with a senior ranking state police officer and having personal relationships with the head of the state police and an apparent friendship with a former State Representative her hometown who is now the Lieutenant Governor had noting to do with her hiring as a dispatcher for the state police and then scoring a promotion to a cushy post as K-9 state trooper.

Cheeky muckrackers
A TurtleBoy.com graphic
However, the most fun had was by the muckraking news bloggers at Turtleboy Sports.

Turtleboy first broke the story last spring about the curious circumstances of Ms. Genduso hiring first as state police dispatcher and then her subsequent promotion to a state trooper – and which has been been at least obliquely noted in the Boston Globe’s coverage – and likely so gave rise to her subsequent suspension without pay shortly thereafter.

Turtleboy cut loose with two broadsides – one underscoring its role in breaking this disgraceful story and the other coverage on how the state police’s internal investigation puts the entire blame on Ms. Genduso.

No one saw, heard or said anything …
A Universal Pictures image
For example, “… (j)ust a reminder, her (Genduso’s, ed. ) live-in boyfriend was the Lt. Colonel who investigated the Tim Murray crash and covered that up too. But he dinno nuffin.”

Also apparently not knowing nothing was a bestie of Ms. Genduso’s now former paramour who was also a Lieutenant Colonel as well as was on the three person panel which approved her hiring as a state trooper.

Perhaps most amazing, however – as well as for a change, Turtleboy’s coverage of this breaking badly bad news© only featured PG-13 language.

Then again, the whole of this sordid affair and which also entails sordid affairs is obscene enough all by itself.

Whether or most likely looking to be not, heads will eventually on pikes – or at least jobs lost and/or pension benefits stripped – remains to be seen as the Massachusetts State Police continues to be hammered by a trifecta of inexcusable scandals.