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Bryon Hefner sounds like he was very busy in 2015
By adamg on Fri, 12/01/2017 - 9:39am
In addition to allegedly groping lobbyists, he was having a grand time bossing around state legislators.
Meanwhile, the state senate will hire an independent investigator to look into the sexual-attack charges.
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After Deleo got away scott
After Deleo got away scott free from the patronage scandal does anyone really expect the legislature's leadership to face any sort of rebuke for blatant corruption?
You would need the people who did the guy
For that, you would need to find the men who did this guy and then got favors from Stan for it. Who's going to talk about that? Certainly not Stan.
Harvey and Matt Lauer probably had willing consensual sex with hundreds of women but we are never going to hear from them. Same with this guy.
Corruption is not a problem and neither is infidelity I guess .
Our esteemed AG is too busy
Our esteemed AG is too busy saving MA from scary guns and politicking to do her job. Top law enforcement officer in the state indeed.
blowjobgate
it is really eating up a lot of her time.
And her job is
Researching sexual assault complaints against citizens who do not hold elected office?
Um, that's the county DA's job, and their offices can't really do anything unless a complaint is filed.
I don't want to seem like I'm defending this fool, since I've hated him since I first read about him back in the day, but in the end this is a sexual assault case, and I don't recall an Attorney General getting involved in such cases in the past. The closest I come up with, and this is off the top of my head and could be wrong, is when the Archdiocese covered up complaints and shielded clergy members, but if the AG got involved, it would have been about the coverup. The DA's handled the priests.
Allegations of graft and
Allegations of graft and sexual harassment tied to one of the highest ranking politicians in the state is indeed within the AGs field. The AG is a far more appropriate investigator and prosecutor for such allegations at these levels of the state government.
Tied to?
Or in other words, one of the highest ranking politicians in the state is not accused of graft or sexual harassment.
Give me a stronger link. Give me something that ties Rosenberg to this other than a marriage certificate. Give me a politician actually doing these things or explicitly accepting that they are happening. Otherwise, this is sexual assault. Hefner might think he's all that, but in end he's no different than anyone else who does something like this. Even if this was a staffer who was groping guys, this is not AG fodder. Until the Senate President is actually implicated in anything, what you are saying is not quite what's out there.
"Give me a stronger link.
"Give me a stronger link. Give me something that ties Rosenberg to this other than a marriage certificate."
This is what we pay the states highest law enforcement officer for. Or is it that you are suggesting this should not be investigated?
Wow, wow wow wow, accountability, not if you have a D next to your name.
I'll tell you what
I think you were working with Hefner on the whole "grabbing of the junk" thing, so perhaps the AG should be investigating you.
I think this should be investigated, but since no one, not even the accusers, are claiming that Rosenberg had any part in this, I don't see why he needs to be investigated at this point in time.
Besides, it's usually the U.S. Attorney's Office that investigates corruption, giving your assumption some credence. Care to give me an example of any AG investigating a politician for corruption, let alone the spouse of a politician.
MA General Laws Partv IV
MA General Laws Partv IV Title I Chapter 268A
"Section 2. (a) Whoever, directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any state, county or municipal employee, or to any person who has been selected to be such an employee, or to any member of the judiciary, or who offers or promises any such employee or any member of the judiciary, or any person who has been selected to be such an employee or member of the judiciary, to give anything of value to any other person or entity, with intent"
The AGs office is the only office truly equipped to enforce and investigate violations of this law. Too bad the AG is too busy with the scary guns and preparing for the governors race.
Despite what you say
Massachusetts does have a history of prosecuting politicians - here's a short list of some (excluding the well-know examples) of pols who have been convicted of crimes:
George T. Ashe: Massachusetts House of Representatives and Mayor of Lowell, Massachusetts - convicted of conspiracy involving bribery for city purchases - sentenced to a year in the House of Correction
Joseph J. C. DiCarlo: Served in both houses of the Massachusetts General Court - convicted of violating the Hobbs Act the Travel Act - sentenced to one year in prison - fined $5,000 and expelled from the Senate.
Anthony D. Galluccio: Former State Senator, convicted three times of driving-related offenses - was given the maximum sentence of one year in prison.[9]
John George Jr.: Massachusetts House of Representatives - found guilty of embezzling federal funds from Union Street Bus Company - sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay $688,772 in restitution
Carlos Tony Henriquez: Massachusetts House of Representatives - convicted of two counts assault and battery charges and sentenced to 2.5 years in jail, with six months to be served in the Middlesex House of Correction and the remaining two years to be spent on probation.
James A. Kelly Jr.: Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts Senate - was convicted of extortion. sentenced him to two years in prison.
Thomas Joseph Lane: U.S. Representative from Massachusetts - notable for having been re-elected after serving time in federal prison for evading income taxes
Barry Myles Locke: Served as Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation - convicted on five counts of conspiracy to commit bribery and larceny - only Massachusetts Cabinet Secretary to be convicted of a felony while in office - sentenced to 7 to 10 years in Walpole State Prison
Ronald Conrad MacKenzie:served in the Massachusetts Senate - resigned following his conviction for extortion, conspiracy, and other related offenses.
John W. Lyons: Mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts - convicted of bribery and conspiracy with contractor Paul Mannos- sentenced to three to four years each in State prison, as well as two years in the House of Correction after.
William Q. "Biff" MacLean Jr.: Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts Senate - indicted MacLean on two counts of violating a provision in the state conflict-of-interest law - pleaded guilty to both charges - ordered to pay $512,000 and serve one year of probation - state retirement stripped him of his pension.
Joseph James Marzilli, Jr.: Massachusetts Senate. - accused of sexually assaulting a woman - prosecutors dropped the case for lack of sufficient evidence - was involved in a second incident & other women came forward to claim Marzilli harassed them - prosecuted for "attempted indecent assault and battery” - pleaded guilty to all charges against him & was sentenced to three months in prison.
Nicholas James Mavroules: United States House of Representatives - indicted on seventeen counts of corruption - allegations included extortion, accepting illegal gifts and failing to report them on congressional disclosure and income tax forms -
pleaded guilty to fifteen counts and was sentenced to a fifteen-month prison term.
David J. "Okie" O’Connor: Massachusetts House of Representatives - left the House after he was convicted of willful failure to file Federal income tax returns.
Gerald F. "Gerry" O’Leary: Massachusetts House of Representatives - resigned after being arrested and charged with attempting to extort a $650,000 kickback from a school bus company - pleaded guilty to violating the Hobbs Act and was sentenced to eighteen months in prison.
Charles Forest Nelson Pratt: Massachusetts House of Representatives - charged with attempted felonious assault - found guilty of simple assault fined $100
George Rogers: Massachusetts General Court and Mayor of New Bedford - convicted of conspiracy to steal & bribe - sentenced to two years in prison * fined $5,000 - afterwards again elected Councilor-at-Large - attempted a return to the Massachusetts House but was defeated in primary after being accused of showing gay porn to a minor.
Stephen Stat Smith: Massachusetts House of Representatives - agreed to plead guilty to two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law for his role in a voter fraud - resigned as part of his plea agreemennt & not be allowed to run for office for five years
Bernard Joseph Tully: Massachusetts Senate and City Manager of Lowell - found guilty of attempted extortion & mail fraud - sentenced to three years in federal prison in a case involving a land swap made with an auto dealership during his tenure as city manager - pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud after he took $12,000 worth of bribes from Lowell landlord
Francis H. Woodward: Massachusetts House of Representatives - indicted on charges mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, interstate travel to commit bribery & lying on State Ethics Commission reports - found guilty of five counts of accepting illegal gratuities - sentenced to six months in a federal halfway house, fined $5,000. Massachusetts Retirement Board revoke pension.
Joseph J. C. DiCarlo- FBI
Joseph J. C. DiCarlo- FBI Case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBM_scandal
Anthony D. Galluccio- Not related to corruption, but sure
John George Jr- Federal case
Carlos Tony Henriquez- not related to corruption, but sure.
James A. Kelly Jr- Federal Case
Thomas Joseph Lane- Like you said, federal case
Barry Myles Locke- Alright! We got one! (Was literally handed to the AG)
Ronald Conrad MacKenzie- Feds again
John W. Lyons- Citations from 1938? Really? But sure.
William Q. "Biff" MacLean Jr- second modern corruption charge from this list handled by the state.
Joseph James Marzilli, Jr- Not corruption related
Nicholas James Mavroule- Feds again
David J. "Okie" O’Connor- feds again
Gerald F. "Gerry" O’Leary- feds again
Charles Forest Nelson Pratt- Not corruption related ...1935
George Roger- look like feds, cant tell we will count it.
Stephen Stat Smith- Feds again
Bernard Joseph Tully- feds again
Francis H. Woodward- feds again.
So quite the list you created for us, what it effectively demonstrates is that MA has failed to enforce its corruption laws in any meaningful manner. Only 2 from your list involve MA prosecutions, one of which the evidence was literally dropped at the AGs doorstep.
Thanks for proving my point.
Give Marua a break! Covering
Give Marua a break! Covering for the crooked judge and district attorneys behind the entire MSP incident report whitewashing fiasco is hard work.
There's a reason why the feds do all the corruption investigations in MA. The AG is a see something say nothing office. It's why the AG should be a non-partisan position with a second independent and equally powerful Inspector General auditing everything. PA has such a system and it keeps officials accountable.
dm12 is too busy
Too busy to look up what the AG does and what her purview is.
Hint: it isn't prosecuting legislators.
http://www.mass.gov/ago/about
http://www.mass.gov/ago/about-the-ago/
Attorney General Maura Healey is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
MA General Laws Partv IV Title I Chapter 268A
So MA politicians are above the law?
I don't think you get it
There is this thing called jurisdiction.
The Legislature is her boss, not the other way around.
Try reading the MGLs honey. Here - I'll even make it easy for you since you are far too lazy and obsessed with your ballistic manhood proxy to look it up: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleII/Chapter12
The AG is a function of the
The AG is a function of the executive office of the state. The AG is also the cheif LEO in the state. Who if not the Chief LEO should enforce the laws with regard to the state legislature?
The legislature is afterall not above the law (I guess they are in MA by your reckoning).
The General Court is not her boss
She’s independent of every other part of government.
This is not news
Hefner's attitude of spoiled entitlement came from his being the last bastion of hope for a lonely old sweater queen who would be the most ignored guy on Grindr if not for his being a thief with a title.
Hefner is just another pain in the ass twink who spends his days trading off of sugar Daddy's now shitty reputation.
Envious
Sounds like a comment from an envious pissy queen. Lonely old sweater queen, sugar daddy? Oh please Mary, make a new dress for yourself. The old one is tattered.
Rosenberg made a bad choice of a husband. That's something new? Plenty of divorces end for the that reason.
Rosenberg is no less human. Try keeping your self-hating homophobic bitchiness at bay. Would you write with the same venom if Rosenberg's spouse was a woman doing the same?
Why is this even news?
I don't get why the actions of Roseberg's husband have anything to do with anything. Why is this even news? Are we keeping track of everyone's spouses now too?
You need to read closer
He was using his position as the guy's husband to get away with what he did. The Globe story is long, but it's in easy-to-understand English; I recommend reading it to the end.
Oh, please...
What "position as the guy's husband"? Is that an official title now? I am an LGBTQ man and if this silly little twit came on to me I would have laughed in his face, regardless of whether I was a lobbyist or not.
Yes, envious
Not a queen, pissy or otherwise, but that's OK. As far as my self hating, I'm not the one having to explain why my twink is going around bossing people around and putting his hands where they don't belong because he thinks he has the backing of Stan the Sugar Daddy. Then maybe you can explain to me if said twink was so in love with Daddy, why disrespect him in this manner by throwing his "weight" around? And then maybe you can cite the amount of old men, straight or gay, that let an attractive younger partner do what they want because it sure as shit beats being lonely when you're just a corrupt old thief.
So spare me the lame attempt at making me out to be a homophobe, as this happens in the straight world just as much. Grow up.
Reform needed now
I realize this probably isn't a felony on the part of Speaker Deleo (and certainly isn't one yet), but let's remember how many Speakers of the House seem to land in hot water.
The office needs serious reform, especially a major reduction in power.
To add: where is the State AG in catching any of of this? Thank goodness for the feds.
Deleo's predecessors as Speaker include 3 in a row who committed crimes against the citizens of Massachusetts. Our current reps either keep electing crooks to lead them, or the power given the speaker is too corrupting. Either way, something needs to change.
Let's start with term limits for the Speakers Office. Maybe like the Boston City Council President.
As a reminder:
- Dimasi- Federal corruption conviction for outright accepting bribes and wasting million s of taxpayer dollars. 2011.
- Finneran- Federal conviction for obstruction of justice regarding redistricting. 2007.
- Flaherty- Federal felony tax conviction and civil conflict of interest charges for taking gifts from lobbyists. 1996.
We need to depoliticize the
We need to depoliticize the AGs office by eliminating elections for the position. AGs worried more about the next big gig than doing their job.
Yes
Because making the AG answerable to the Governor will definitely mean that they will act apolitically. Just like the federal position, which is a fine example of nonpartisanship in a cabinet post.
Cuts both ways
Being elected makes the AG less likely to ignore their boss in the executive branch. Plenty of other good AGs nationwide have gone after white collar and political cases since locking these guys up is great politics.
The problem is these cases are hard. Much easier to go after social issues.
That's a good idea (not)
Given the quality of our current U.S. Attorney General (appointed) it seems to me that electing the AG is far better than allowing a mentally unstable criminal being allowed to install a bigot, liar and crook as AG.
The MA AGs office has a long
The MA AGs office has a long history of prosecuting high level politicians for corruption.
Oh wait, no they don't. Much better to have our AGs pontificating than actually diong their jobs.
There is a reason for that
The legislature isn't within their jurisdiction.
The AG isn't a prosecutor.
The AG is the chief LEO in
The AG is the chief LEO in the state of MA.
Who in the heck do you think enforces these laws? Holy hell
I'm still waiting for examples
Sure, you could talk about the work done by William Weld, Wayne Budd, and Carmen Ortiz, but they were US Attorneys. Which AG's prosecuted political corruption (assuming you are right about the corruption, which is specious)?
Wait, so since past AGs
Wait, so since past AGs failed in their job its OK to keep failing?
Okie dokie
So
When you wrote
you meant that there is in fact no history of doing what you said they did.
Way to be consistent.
"Oh wait, no they don't. Much
"Oh wait, no they don't. Much better to have our AGs pontificating than actually diong their jobs."
The next sentence you left out.
Are you by chance related to Trump?
And the AG’s job is?
Perhaps I should ask someone else, since you just said you don’t have a clue what the AG does.
You lashed at me for being a Democrat (assumption #1) then linked me to Trump (assumption #2). Lots of assumptions there.
Or you could just admit there was an actual flaw in your original statement.
"You lashed at me for being a
"You lashed at me for being a Democrat (assumption #1)"
Where?
"then linked me to Trump (assumption #2)."
Do you understand what sarcasm is?
The AG is the chief LEO in the state, do you dispute that statement.
For Reference
The laws that define and govern the role of the attorney general: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleII/Chapter12
Note that "police legislator ethics" is not in there.
The AG is the CHIEF LEO in
The AG is the CHIEF LEO in the state of MA.
The relevant law is this, MA General Laws Partv IV Title I Chapter 268A.
Hefner has a drinking problem, Rosenberg said
In a brief news conference just now, Rosenberg said he's heartbroken over the allegations, that Hefner never had anything at all to do with the Senate and that if he said he did, he was wrong, and that he's checking into an inpatient alcohol treatment program. Also said he looks forward to cooperating with the investigation; gave no indication of stepping down. He did not take questions.
He's got another problem
He has an esteem problem.
I was listening to a podcast by Irish artist Blindboy Boatclub from the group Rubber Bandits. They perform with plastic shopping bags covering their heads (and yes, they pay the plastic bag charge for them.) I mean, this guy goes on major shows and pontificates on depression, politics, history, and the state of modern Ireland, all with a bag on his head. This week he answered the burning question "Why do I wear a plastic bag?" In short, when he's not doing his artistic/philosophical thing, he likes not being recognized. He lives his life without people wanting to go on about how great or horrible he is. Discussing this, he gets into the concept of esteem. Now, everyone knows that low self esteem is a bad thing, but high self esteem is also really bad. It leads to a lot of the behaviors like what we have seen from Mr. Hefner. So the best thing for people is to have medium esteem, where you are in a place where you feel good about yourself but are not dependent on the feelings of others.
I'd link to the youtube podcast, but I doubt people would be interested. Check out what the Rubber Bandits have online. They are pretty brilliant.
Bagism
This reminds me somewhat of Yoko Ono's "bagism" concept from the 1960s. She and others would make appearances in a bag for "total communication with no prejudice", as she put it then.
I am shocked, shocked
Bryon is going into alcohol rehab. Good thing the senator had time to announce this on Friday afternoon.
Byron's Gonna Rest His Chemistry
He looks like
A George Regan clone, didn’t he work regan communications at one time
Sure did
until Regan Communications tried to reassign him to their Florida office in late 2014.
Is this the extent of the sexual harassment recently reported
To plague the state house? If not, where are the other culprits? Yvonne Abraham wrote a column about widespread harassment, but without naming any names at all. It was odd. Why protect these villains? Not that this case isn't significant, but I thought we would have seen far more reporting on the state house harassment issue after the initial stories.
And the hits just keeping on coming
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/12/bryon_hefner_sent_nud...