Longtime listener
Hampden County DA Anthony Gulluni uses wiretaps about as much as every other DA in the state combined.
Dear Shoestring readers,
Our Saturday newsletter is on Sunday again, this time to highlight an investigation we conducted with the Springfield Republican into wiretapping in Hampden County.
The Shoestring’s investigations editor, Dusty Christensen, along with his counterpart at the Republican, Greta Jochem, tracked down reports that district attorneys are required to file with the state detailing their wiretaps each year. Some DAs requested no wiretaps at all during the four-year period Christensen and Jochem analyzed. But Hampden DA Anthony Gulluni requested 83, just three less than the entire rest of the state combined. Since each wiretap warrant can cover multiple phone numbers, the number of individuals tapped likely numbers in the hundreds. Unique “interceptions” of phone calls and other data can reach into the hundreds of thousands in a single year, the reporters found.
While Massachusetts has some of the strongest protections against wiretapping in the country, some legislators — including Westfield Democratic Sen. John Velis — are trying to change that.
Christensen and Jochem’s report covers these legislative efforts, accusations of discrimination against Gulluni, and the DA’s defense of his unique program, which he says is necessary due stop drug trafficking in the county. Read the full story on our website, or in today’s edition of the Republican.
Earlier this week, reporter Dan McGlynn covered the employee letters that have stalled the hiring of outgoing Northampton Public Schools Superintendent Portia Bonner at the Collaborative for Educational Services, a nonprofit serving Hampshire and Franklin County schools. Letters The Shoestring obtained include one by non-union CES staff criticizing the hiring process, and another by unionized staff criticizing the choice of Bonner, specifically. Bonner has overseen the city’s schools during recent budget crunches that resulted in layoffs and an overwhelming vote of “no confidence” in her leadership by the school’s union.
In a letter on Tuesday, CES’ Board of Directors Chair Cathy Englehardt told staff that “Any complaint against an employee (in this case, someone who was offered a position) is heard and discussed in executive session with legal representatives from both sides present,” and that such a meeting would push back contract negotiations with Bonner.
More soon,
The Shoestring