The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston's Racial Divide (47 page)

As the years passed, Mike stayed on at the Boston Police Department. “First, I’m not a quitter,” he said by way of explanation. Besides, he’d always felt safer on the inside and had never wavered in his belief that law enforcement was an honorable profession. “I like doing police work,” he said. “There are many good things done on a day-to-day basis that you never hear about.”

Mike was promoted to deputy superintendent in early 2005 by a new police commissioner, after Paul Evans left the force to take a job with the British government, evaluating the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies in that country. Mike even began taking courses at Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

But nothing would ever be the same, even if Mike felt vindicated by his successful lawsuit. When it came to police work, he was the first to admit this. “It’s different for me now,” he said. “That trust, I don’t have it anymore, no doubt about that.”

The change went further, though. “He’s not the same guy, not the same cheerful guy,” said Mike’s best pal from boarding school, Vince Johnson. “I recognize his voice, but that’s it. His whole demeanor—there’s not that confidence.”

Whereas Mike’s self-image was once built around cop and career, he now talked about no longer letting the work define him. He focused instead on family and took pride in his kids, watching his sons excel in ice hockey and football as they made their way through high school. The boys were college-bound and still he’d never sat down and talked to them about the night everything changed on January 25, 1995.

Mike was different, he knew that. But the thing he wasn’t sure about was whether the police culture was different as a result of his quest for justice. Sure, on the one hand, he’d observed a “heightened awareness of some of the issues.”

But the big question was: Could it happen again? Could another police beating like his happen again, where the assailants were shielded afterward by a powerful blue wall of silence?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I like to think not. But I don’t know.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank the Boston police officers and law enforcement officials who helped me in my research. I want to thank, especially, Mike Cox. He was always a reluctant player in this project. Not surprisingly, Mike never wanted to be in the position of beating victim, and he was not enthusiastic about the case becoming the basis for a book. Given that, he nonetheless did not seek to obstruct the research and, indeed, at various points, sat with me for hours for a number of long interviews. I also want to thank Jim Carnell, Jim Rattigan, Bobby Dwan, Paul Farrahar, Jim Hussey, Jim Burgio, and Craig Jones. Some officers wished to go unnamed. I want to thank Kenny Conley; his wife, Jen; his sister Kris; and their families. The police department’s press officer, Elaine Driscoll, and her staff were always gracious and helpful in tracking down public records.

In the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, I want to thank DA Dan Conley, press officers Jake Wark and David Procopio; in the U.S. attorney’s office, I thank assistant U.S. attorneys Ted Merritt and Brian Kelly.

I thank Robert Brown, Mattie Brown, Indira Pierce, and their families for their openness and cooperation.

I am grateful to a number of attorneys, some formerly prosecutors, for their assistance: Robert Andrews in Portland, Maine; Saul Pilchen, Jonice Gray Tucker, and Robert Bennett of Washington, D.C.; Robert George, Robert Peabody, Tom Giblin, Robert Sheketoff, Willie Davis, Fran Robinson, and Roberta Golick—all of the Boston area. I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Superior Court Judge Carol Ball and U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young and his staff.

My agent, Richard Abate, made this book a reality. Thanks to Dan Conaway at HarperCollins for seeing the merit in the story, and thanks especially to Gail Winston, my editor, for her unflagging support, not only for this book but for my previous ones as well. I also thank Sarah Whitman-Salkin, Shea O’Rourke, and the entire HarperCollins team.

I was helped in my research with a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and I completed the book while a Visiting Journalist at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. I thank Florence Graves, the institute’s executive director, for her continued support for this project.

This book would not have been possible without the support and friendship of my colleagues at Boston University’s College of Communication and the
Boston Globe.

At BU, Bob Zelnick, past chair of the journalism department, and Lou Ureneck, the current chair, helped me juggle my classes with my writing. Mitch Zuckoff has served as a longtime sounding board for ideas (and writing partner), and I thank him. Susan Walker, Paul Schneider, Bill Lord, Ken Holmes, John Schultz, and Sheryl Jackson-Holliday all helped out, with good humor, music, and various other ways. For research assistance, I thank BU journalism graduate students Erin Crosby, Rushmie Kalke, Emily Berry, and John Eagan.

At the
Globe
, past and present, I want to thank Larry Tye, Steve Kurkjian, and Shelley Murphy. Head librarian Lisa Tuite and librarians Richard Pennington and Wanda Joseph-Rollins were invaluable in finding and organizing news stories and photographs. I’d also like to acknowledge Mary Jane Wilkinson, the paper’s managing editor for administration, and Toby Leith, the paper’s content licensing manager, for their help. Thanks to David Butler for producing a fine map of Roxbury and beyond.

Gerry O’Neill read an early draft of the first half of the book, and I thank him for his insights, his partnership on other books, and his friendship going on two decades now. I’ve learned so much about journalism and investigative reporting from him. My gratitude goes to another longtime pal, Dave Holahan, who, like Gerry, offered his thumbs-up after an early reading of the work-in-progress. I was lucky to have his wife, Kyn Tolson, and their son, Jackson, also read the manuscript. I thank my parents, John and Nancy Lehr, for their support.

David Bernstein, a writer at the
Boston Phoenix
, was helpful in tracking down stories regarding Jim Burgio that ran in his paper. Carl Todisco, the current owner of 60 Winthrop Street, was generous in giving me a tour of the house where Mike Cox grew up. Thanks also to Donna Kenney, a veteran ER nurse, for a tour of the former Boston City Hospital’s emergency room, which was arranged by Maria Pantages and Ellen Berlin of Corporate Communications, Boston University Medical Center. I thank Mike’s former classmates at the Wooster School, Vincent Johnson and Tim Fornero, for sharing their memories. Thanks to Rande Styger of the Wooster School for providing yearbook photos and other information about Mike’s years at Wooster.

I thank my sons for their help and interest along the way—Christian for his expertise on hip-hop music and Nick for his careful reading of the manuscript. My daughters, Holly and Dana, are, quite simply, pure joy, and they made sure I didn’t become an obsessive recluse during the research and writing.

My wife, Karin, was an inspiration throughout, listening to all the stories that are part of a project like this—about the people, the reporting discoveries, the obstacles, the highs, the lows, the breakthroughs. She read each chapter as it was written, with a keen eye, and was indispensable in creating the writing room day-to-day to keep the book moving.

Now that this one is done, it’s time for Temenos.

AUTHOR’S NOTE ON SOURCES

Since 1997, I have written a number of in-depth newspaper and magazine articles for the
Boston Globe
about the Cox beating, Mike Cox, Kenny Conley, and Robert “Smut” Brown. In a city where politics, sports, and crime are king, the mistaken and horrific beating of Mike Cox by his fellow cops became a major story, a tragedy that was at once unprecedented and unforgettable. While the brutality may have resulted from a series of misjudgments and mistakes, what happened afterward turned the case into something more—a symbol of an intractable police culture. The failure to bring the beaters to justice became a drama featuring tribalism, abuse of power, race, and policing in a post–affirmative action America. Cities and towns all across the United States confront at times the toxic mix of police brutality and corruption; the Cox case, unlike any other, dramatically illuminates the powerful gravitational pull on a cop to lie. The blue wall of silence held fast even when it meant standing silently as the beating of one brother went unsolved and another was sentenced to serve time in federal prison.

The Fence
is a work of nonfiction. The characters are real. No one’s name has been changed. The book is based in dozens of interviews with participants and thousands of pages of testimony and other materials that are part of an official record that includes court trials, local and federal investigations, and labor arbitration proceedings. Listed below are those sources. Either by letter or other means, I sought to interview key people involved in the case. Most, but not everyone, cooperated. Fortunately, I was able to draw on the sworn testimony and official statements of those who declined to be interviewed.

The scenes and dialogue are based on the recollection of at least one participant. For grammatical purposes, I occasionally altered the verb tense in a quotation. Where there was conflict regarding an event or someone’s words, I was guided by the weight of the evidence—what seemed most plausible and reliable based on the reporting and interviews I conducted, along with the testimony, government records, and court rulings.

NOTES

Please note that full forms are given in the appendices that follow.

PROLOGUE: JANUARY 25, 1995

S
WORN TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS BY
: Donald Caisey (Cox ACU); Kimberly Cox (Cox trial deposition, Daley arbitration); Michael Cox (Cox IAD, Suffolk GJ, Cox trial deposition, Burgio arbitration); Craig Jones (Suffolk GJ, Cox trial deposition, Daley arbitration); Gary Ryan (Suffolk GJ, Federal GJ, Daley arbitration); Isaac Thomas (Cox IAD, Cox ACU, Suffolk GJ, Burgio arbitration); Thomas “Joe” Teahan (Daley arbitration); Richard Walker (Suffolk GJ, Federal GJ, Burgio arbitration); David Williams (Cox ACU, Suffolk GJ, Williams arbitration).

I
NTERVIEW
: James Rattigan: Oct. 27, 2005.

O
THER
: Tour of emergency room at Boston City Hospital, Dec. 14, 2006. Tour and Suffolk County Property and Deed Records for 52 Supple Road, Dorchester. Tour of Woodruff Way, Mattapan, multiple visits.

R
ECORDS
: Audiotape of Boston Police Department radio channel 9, Jan. 25, 1995. EMT records of Lyle Jackson, Jan. 25, 1995. Boston City Hospital medical records for Michael Cox, Jan. 25, 1995. Boston City Hospital medical records for Lyle Jackson, Jan. 25, 1995; Jan. 31, 1995.

N
EWS ARTICLES
: Chacon, Richard, “Four Men Arrested in Dorchester Shooting,”
Boston Globe
, Jan. 26, 1995.

CHAPTER 1: MIKE COX

S
WORN TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS BY
: Kimberly Cox (Cox trial deposition); Michael Cox (Cox trial deposition, Cox trial, Dateline NBC Nov. 2, 1999, Burgio arbitration, Daley arbitration); Craig Jones (Cox trial deposition).

I
NTERVIEWS
: Michael Cox: March 12, 2006; Oct. 15, 2006. Craig Jones: Aug. 21, 2007. Seleata Emery: Oct. 10, 2005. Tim Fornero: Nov. 29, 2005; Dec. 1, 2005. Vincent Johnson: January 2006. Carl Todisco: July 8, 2005; July 13, 2005.

O
THER
: Tour of 60 Winthrop Street, Roxbury, July 8, 2005.

R
ECORDS
: Massachusetts Department of Vital Statistics: birth certificate of Michael Anthony Cox, no. 9665: June 17, 1965. Wooster School Yearbook: Class of 1984. Suffolk County Property and Deed Records for 60 Winthrop St., Roxbury. Boston Landmark Commission records for 60–62 Winthrop Street, Roxbury. 1962 photograph of 60 Winthrop Street, Roxbury: Bostonian Society, Robert Severy Collection. Brighton 13 case.

B
OOKS AND ARTICLES
: Beatty,
The Rascal King
, p. 166. Lukas,
Common Ground
, p. 17 and after. O’Connor,
Boston A to Z
, p. 27. History of the Carmelite Monastery, Roxbury: www.carmeliteofboston.org.

N
EWS ARTICLES
: “New Roxbury Police Division Opens,”
Boston Globe
, March 8, 1971. “Masked Pair Loot Brookline Home of Publishing Executive,”
Boston Globe
, Jan. 20, 1974. “Key, 4 Prisoners Disappear from Boston Police Lockup,”
Boston Globe
, Jan. 16, 1975. “3 Policemen Suspended in Escape of 4 Prisoners,”
Boston Herald
, July 8, 1975. Currier, Ann-Mary, “Business Declines as Crime Increases in Dudley Square Area of Roxbury,”
Boston Globe
, March 27, 1995. Keeley, Bob, “Couple Invade Brookline Home, Seize Paintings,”
Boston Herald
, Jan. 20, 1974. Miller, Margo, “Roxbury’s New $3.5 Million Courthouse Opens with Quiet Fanfare,”
Boston Globe
, Oct. 27, 1971. Taylor, Jerry, “Police District 2—Leads City in Violent Crime,”
Boston Globe
, June 6, 1977.

CHAPTER 2: ROBERT “SMUT” BROWN

S
WORN TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS BY
: Alton Clarke (Boston Police Department interview, Oct. 18, 1995); Jimmy “Marquis” Evans (Jackson murder trial); John “Tiny” Evans ( Jackson murder trial); Venice Grant (Boston Police Department interview, Feb. 9, 1995); Marcello Holliday ( Jackson murder grand jury, Feb. 15, 1995); Marvette Neal (Boston Police Department interview, Feb. 10, 1995); Stanley Pittman (Boston Police Department interview, Feb. 20, 1995); Kenneth Renrick (Boston Police Department interview, Feb. 18, 1995; March 9, 1995); April Ross (Boston Police Department interview, Feb. 14, 1995); Marcus Wiggins (Boston Police Department interview, Feb. 14, 1995); Willie Wiggins (Boston Police Department interview, Jan. 25, 1995; May 20, 1996).