Open letter to Andrea Cabral.
First of all I resent the individual you chose to head the investigative division, Viktor Theiss. I know you reject arguments that you filled senior positions with hacks. Nepotism and favoritism is not limited to hiring just family. Hiring friends and former co-workers is still nepotism. You like to flaunt the Stern commission report as a reason for bringing your pals from Ralph Martin’s office. The fact is they all wanted public sector employment after Dan Conley was appointed the new Suffolk County DA, and you were in a position to surround yourself with friends after your appointment.
I hope Mr. Thesis’s parking ticket issue will come back to haunt you. Most people who have cars in the neighborhood where he resides park them in a garage or pay their fines, but when you are in a position to have thousands of dollars in fines and penalties dismissed under a special program for county vehicles why bother? Do you know that the vast majority of those tickets were written in his residential neighborhood? I would call this “a pattern of behavior” a phrase you former prosecutors like to use. Perhaps those voters who have to deal with the parking obstacles will remember this when they vote. Of course that may not mean much to you considering you only voted in five of the past 13 elections According to City Hall statistics.
By the way didn’t Mr. Theiss make a $500 donation to your campaign just before he became a member of your staff? I resent your “Deadbeat parents” link on the scsdma website. I believe that you are the biggest deadbeat of them all. I hope the public remembers your non-payment of student loans from Boston College and Suffolk Law School, even after the schools won court judgments against you. This gives credence to Councilor Stephen Murphy’s comments about your “lacking in fiscal responsibility.”
I also resent your use of taxpayer money and public resources to support your campaign. Addressing reporters at the House of Correction, and sending a press release out on department letterhead is a violation of state Campaign and Political Finance laws especially when you used these resources to launch an attack on your political opponent. You used the names of city and Sheriff’s Department employees in fund-raising literature, another violation of campaign finance laws and your own department’s regulations. The mailings sent by your Committee ask for donations and list the names of locally prominent employees of the Sheriff’s Department and City of Boston. How is your campaign going to handle contributions received as a result of these mailings?
You’re not different from any previous holder of this office. Being a Black Female sheriff of Suffolk County is where the difference ends. It’s the same old wine in another bottle. You offer lucrative posts to your pals. Seasoned hacks that know how to “milk the system.” You abuse the office and resources for political purposes. You violate campaign finance laws, and department regulations on more than one occasion. Sounds like a “pattern of behavior” to me.
Stephen Lan
