by David Still, II, Editor. Reprinted from The Barnstable Patriot
With the expected approval of the town council at its Oct. 15 meeting, Barnstable Police Chief Paul MacDonald will have something he never did before: a contract.
Town Manager John Klimm reached a three-year agreement with the chief, which needs ratification by the council. MacDonald has served as chief, first as interim, then as permanent, since the departure of John Finnegan in Nov. 2006. The position was then shifted out of civil service to that of a contract employee. Klimm said Tuesday that the chief has been an employee at will since that time.
Both Klimm and council president Fred Chirigotis offered praise for the work done by MacDonald in his time as chief.
Mary Clements
241D Stevens Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
August 5, 2005
Mr. Christopher H Worthington
187 Downer Avenue
Hingham, MA
Dear Mr. Worthington,
Enclosed are some documents that pertain to Housing Assistance Corporation of Hyannis and criminal activity related to the negligent operation of this substandard human service organization. The shelter system in Hyannis promotes an atmosphere of tolerance for criminal offenders and attracts drug addicts and convicted felons to the vicinity and greater Cape Cod region. Christopher McCowan frequented the area and was often seen with local drug dealers and addicts in associated crack houses. Many of these individuals are well known to local law enforcement and have been prosecuted by District Attorney Mr. Michael O’Keefe’s Office.
For the past three years I have followed the tragedy that claimed the life of your daughter. Your family has suffered a terrible loss and I cannot begin to understand the anger that you must feel not only toward the perpetrator but also those entrusted to protect the innocent and insure public safety. Mr. O’Keefe’s Office was consistently made aware of the problems created by narcotics trafficking and convicted felons with violent criminal pasts living in the area and local law enforcement did respond with increased vigilance when I lived researching this organization in a known crack house. The Officers of the Barnstable Police Department interfaced with McCowan and his friends constantly at 72 North Street, Hyannis. Unfortunately, we did not know we were harboring Mr. McCowan at Kendrick’s/North Street, Hyannis.
I recognized Mr. McCowan from my building as did two other residents and a known local drug dealer, all of us known to a local human service organization that caters to criminal offenders. Ms. Arlene Crosby, a reliable source who serves as the Housing Placement Specialist at the NOAH Shelter confirmed that McCowan was known to the area and that a colleague named Bernice Phillips had placed him at his rooming house on Lafrance Avenue. Ms. Phillips also places clients at the rooming house across the street from NOAH. Photographs of the general decadence in the area and narcotics use in the pictures that accompany these materials demonstrate public safety problems created by this organization.
When Housing Assistance Corporation made an attempt to expand shelter operations by procuring the Mildred’s Chowder House, the District Attorney went on record suggesting that the residents of Barnstable show “a little deference” to the “disparate elements” of the community. The Chief of Police in Barnstable negotiated a twenty-thousand dollar pay increase annually in a six-year contract to sign-off on the project. He instructed his public relations agent to handle questions on public safety. Chief Finnegan failed to attend the crucial meetings on expansion of the project and negotiated the pay raise with the assistance of Town Councilor Royden Richardson. Councilor Richardson was on the Board of Trustees of the Salvation Army with Chief Finnegan. He also is a trustee of Community Action Committee and was the representative of the Town Council who established the Barnstable Human Service Needs Committee.
At the expansion meetings, Mr. Rick Presbrey, CEO of Housing Assistance Corporation insisted that 72 North Street, frequented by McCowan was not a crack house. He also insisted that there were no known criminal offenders known to The NOAH Shelter. He stated that Chief John Finnegan would categorically deny that any known offenders were known to NOAH. Since August of 2003, seven violent offenders were tracked to the NOAH Shelter and three more to the immediate area after the killing of young Jonathan Wessner of Falmouth. Mr. Presbrey referred to me as “irresponsible” for suggesting that NOAH and the surrounding areas are unsafe. Mr. Presbrey was sponsoring the controversial “Dana’s Field’s Farm” and intended to screen all offenders from the applicant pool and place violent offenders in an expanded facility across from the Raddison Hotel in Hyannis. There is an associated health clinic that liberally prescribes narcotics to offenders and this is across the street from one of the crack houses that McCowan frequented here in Hyannis.
I hope during preparation for the upcoming trial that you could ask the District Attorney to take a more conservative approach to the shelter in downtown Hyannis. I am sure that Mr. O’Keefe did not intend to suggest deference to sex offenders such as Christopher McCowan or his cohort Perry Bell. At the Town of Sandwich Zoning Board of Appeals, Mr. Michael Princi, Esq. representing Housing Assistance Corporation for Dana’s Fields insinuated that he had made a significant contribution to Mr. O’Keefe and that he was owed favors by the District Attorney. I am also convinced that Mr. O’Keefe did not intend to have Housing Assistance Corporation or its attorney boasting that it had such clout with $525 in campaign contributions. Nevertheless, attorneys with whom I have spoken who have background with RICO believe there is some form of influence peddling in regard to the Chief of Police. He did indeed accept a $120,000 windfall salary increase over six years to instruct his media relations agent to sign off on the initiative that would have expanded negligent services to individuals like McCowan.
Chief John Finnegan was made aware of the difficulty with criminal offenders at NOAH well before he instructed his public relations agent to support the expansion of the organization providing negligent services to offenders. The salary increase and new contract were negotiated during the Barnstable Human Services efforts at the Barnstable Airport Commission and Mr. Presbrey invoked the Chief’s name several times in his attempts to assuage abutting residents of the “Mildred’s Chowder House” of their concern for safety issues.
I have forwarded this correspondence and materials to the families of other victims of crimes by perpetrators known to The NOAH Shelter/Housing Assistance Corporation. As with the other victims, your family and in particular your granddaughter are in my thoughts and prayers.
Sincerely,
Mary Clements
