Good Cop, Bad Cop
(By American Zen’s Mike Flannigan, on loan from
Ari)
(Disclaimer: The proprietor of this blog and Mr. Wilson have an
ongoing years-long friendship, in which the former has benefited on several
occasions by the generosity of the latter. However, that in no way, shape or
form has influenced the blog owner’s decision to post an article about his case
nor the content of what is written below.)
Introduction
We need police. That’s the long and
the short of it.
Whatever your view of the very real problems our society faces in bad
juyucops who shoot unarmed African Americans or the mentally disabled when sent to
the scene of a medical emergency, the simple fact is that those cops take a lot
of oxygen from the honest, dedicated law enforcement professionals whose good
to society far outweighs the bad we incessantly hear about on the news and
social media.
The need for some law enforcement was understood in the days of the
Roman Empire and in AD 6 answered in the form of the vigiles urbani. And 1823 years later, Sit Robert Peel well
understood the need for a professional police force and that’s how Scotland
Yard was created, with the passage of the Metropolitan
Police Act, in 1829.
So obviously, there will always be the need for “the thin blue line”
because where there are laws, there will always be criminals. And latter day
human society is always in desperate need of good cops to make up part of that
vital buffer between civilians and lawlessness and disorder. But what happens
when cops forget whatever high-minded ideals that led them to apply to the
Academy when they turn on their own, when pensions and reputations are at
stake?
We all remember what had happened to Serpico. And Serpico was an
exception that gradually became more of a norm than an exception. And today, I
will write at length about the bizarre case of Antone Raneo Wilson, a good cop
who got railroaded by his own. Not only his own, but lazy, collusive,
avaricious attorneys (including three who were suspended), a famously corrupt
Boston political power structure and virtually every principal involved. It’s a
case that is so intensely radioactive that no mainstream media journalist or
attorney will touch it with the proverbial 10 foot pole. (Most recently a reporter
with the Boston Globe looked into it
then, like Homer Simpson or Sean Spicer, slowly melted into the bushes). That
was when I was contacted by former Mass State Trooper Antone Wilson.
The Beginning
It began on a miserable, wet rainy
day in December of 2000 in Franklin, MA. It wasn’t even a routine traffic stop.
Franklin, in Norfolk County in southern Massachusetts, is generally a friendly
city, one of just 14 granted a charter to run a city government. It’s the kind
of place where, when you hear a car backfire, you assume it’s a car back-firing
and Honor Roll high school graduates bound for college make the front page of
the local paper.
However on this day, off duty State Trooper Antone Wilson was driving
through Franklin and ran into a detail manned by three officers from the
Franklin Police Department. He stopped long enough to ask for directions and
one of the young officers, perhaps resenting his posting on a foul day, was
immediately surly. The situation quickly escalated and when Trooper Wilson was
asked for ID, he produced his State Police creds.
Rather than de-escalating what was already a needless confrontation, the
Franklin Police essentially detained Trooper Wilson as they wouldn’t hand him
back his badge and ID for upwards of 20 minutes. At one point, one of the young
officers even deliberately nudged Trooper Wilson’s shoulder with his own in
order to manufacture an escalation. Trooper Wilson was by this time already 39
years-old and didn’t bite on the bait.
It ought to be mentioned that despite Franklin’s lowkey reputation and
outward gentility, at this exact same time the Franklin Police Department was
already under federal investigation from the Chief on down for corruption. Even
16½ years ago, the allegations went back three decades.
Ironically, even though Trooper Wilson was the one being wronged, it was
the Franklin Police Department who’d fired the first salvo in the form of a
complaint against Trooper Wilson for assault and verbal abuse. They almost
surely did this to cover their own asses as a pre-emptive counter suit to
protect itself from what they expected to be Trooper Wilson’s own complaint.
However, Trooper Wilson never filed that complaint.
Can We Spell Conflict
of Interest, Boys and Girls?
As if tempting the Fates into bringing
about a self-fulfilling prophecy, the Franklin PD had filed a complaint that
had brought about an investigation into Trooper Wilson for misconduct,
specifically regarding physical assault and verbal abuse. As if that wasn’t
enough, the Massachusetts State Police had saddled him with an attorney who was
jurisprudence’s answer to a canvasback club fighter on the take.
Without immediately making full disclosure
to his client, this attorney represented not only the MA State Police union but
also the Franklin PD’s union. Almost immediately, as if trying to sweep it
under the rug, Mr. Wilson’s representation was, in his own words, “increasingly
strident” about getting his client to admit to some guilt in the interests of
speedy resolution. Attorney/client privilege is intended to protect the client
from prying outside parties, not the attorney from his own client.
Deeply suspicious of his own lawyer’s
intentions and motivations, Mr. Wilson then asked him, repeatedly, if he also
represented the Franklin PD’s union and his concerns about collusion were dismissed.
Eventually, as the investigation gained traction, Trooper Wilson was in the
absurd and very unenviable position of watching growing evidence proving his innocence
rebuffed by his own attorney. Yes,
Antone Wilson’s own attorney was working in concert with investigators to
ensure some responsibility for misconduct would be proved or admitted to. Finally,
after confronting his lawyer by asking him if he was indeed working for the
Franklin PD’s union, he answered in the affirmative, albeit vaguely. As much as
honest individuals hate to use the word, Trooper Wilson realized his concerns
about a conspiracy were well-founded. Putting a cherry to this revelation was
his attorney’s ominous caveat: “(Y)ou’d better not be telling state secrets.”
Several days before Trooper Wilson’s disciplinary hearing, two officers
who’d been on the board were replaced, to Mr. Wilson’s satisfaction.
Still (inexplicably) trusting his attorney, Mr. Wilson informed him
(remember the quaint notion of attorney/client privilege?) this decision
met his approval because he’d regarded the replacements as impartial
and their insertion would force a negotiated settlement that would force
the sworn testimony of the accusing officers of the Franklin PD. By
this time, the state trooper was convinced his own attorney was abusing
his trust by sharing confidential, privileged information with the same
party (the Mass State Police) that was attempting to get nonexistent
dirt to stick on him.
Then at last his plainly useless union-appointed attorney was recused from the case. A fair-minded person would construe this as good news. But it was just the beginning of an ordeal that is now in its 17th year…
Then at last his plainly useless union-appointed attorney was recused from the case. A fair-minded person would construe this as good news. But it was just the beginning of an ordeal that is now in its 17th year…
posted by jurassicpork @ Wednesday, June 28, 2017
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