NOTE BETWEEN PRINTED EDITIONS:
State Orders Yarmouth Police Department to Release Info on Ongoing Criminal Investigation of Democrat State Rep. Chris Flanagan
BOSTON -– Last month, the Boston/Barnstable Broadside made multiple inquires to Cape Cod police departments in attempts to secure details of an ongoing yet sequestered criminal investigation of Cape Cod Democrat Rep. Chris Flanagan.
In October, Broadside reporter Kristen Brissette did obtain written confirmation from the Barnstable Police Department that Rep. Flanagan’s police investigation was transferred to the Yarmouth Police Department due to jurisdiction issues. As previously reported, prior to the election, the Yarmouth Police Department refused to release any information, with the exception of confirming that Rep. Flanagan is under police investigation. The Broadside appealed the stonewalling to the state’s Public Records Division.
On Nov. 7 – the day after Rep. Flanagan’s re-election – Manza Arthur of the commonwealth’s Public Records Division issued a three-page legal determination detailing the laws of public records release and ordering the Yarmouth Police Department to release the contents of the criminal matter to the Broadside “within ten business days.”
“As some have speculated, it appears a certain amount of slow-walking until after the election took place, again, apparently to the benefit of Rep. Flanagan,” Broadside Editor Lonnie Brennan noted. “We remind readers that despite Rep. Flanagan’s history of lying to investigators with the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance last election cycle, and his subsequent wrist-slap fine which that department took nearly two years to release, anyone under police investigation is presumed innocent until convicted.”
