Governor Charlie Baker, citing “a significant set of serious allegations,” said Thursday that his administration is launching a review of how and why the head of the Massachusetts State Police ordered a trooper to delete embarrassing information from an arrest report involving the daughter of a state judge.
Also Thursday, a second trooper said she will defy an order to water down her description of the October arrest of the daughter of Dudley District Judge Timothy Bibaud. The trooper plans to deliver her report to court on Friday, complete with comments about the judge’s daughter saying that she had traded sex for heroin and leniency, as well as her fears that her father would find out about her arrest.
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Baker, speaking to reporters, said he had serious questions about the altering of the arrest report of Alli Bibaud. Trooper Ryan Sceviour has filed a federal lawsuit against State Police Superintendent Richard McKeon and other law enforcement officials, alleging that he was reprimanded and ordered to falsify his report to protect the judge and his daughter.
“We said when the story first came to us that it was a significant set of serious allegations and it deserved a significant review,” said Baker. “And we’re giving it a significant review, and we expect to have that review completed shortly.”
Baker wouldn’t say whether he plans to discipline or remove Colonel McKeon, the superintendent of State Police, when asked by a reporter whether he would be placed on leave.
“I’m not going to speak to a personnel issue until we’ve completed a thorough review of our own,” said Baker, who added that his staff would do the investigation.
Attorney General Maura Healey said she, too, is investigating the altering of Bibaud’s arrest report and Sceviour’s allegations, which were first reported by the Globe this week.
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“The allegations in this complaint are seriously concerning, and our office is reviewing the matter to learn more,” said Healey spokeswoman Jillian Fennimore.
McKeon has acknowledged that he ordered the changes in the report, but his spokesman said it’s acceptable for a supervisor to edit police reports. McKeon argued that Bibaud’s remarks about sex and about her father — included in the trooper’s report —
On Friday, Alli Rei, the trooper who gave Bibaud a drug test on the night of her arrest, said she plans to bring her detailed report about Bibaud’s arrest to the Middlesex County prosecutor handling the case.
Rei’s detailed notes about her encounter with Bibaud were excised from the agency’s daily log on an order from Major Barbara Anderson, the head of the Holden barracks. Anderson told the trooper she could keep a copy of the notes to help her write up the report she is required to file in court. But she was instructed to delete anything sexual or sensational, and then shred her original notes, according to Rei’s written statements.
But Rei didn’t shred her log notes and included all the details of the arrest in the report that she will file in Framingham District Court, where Bibaud’s case has been assigned. In the report, Rei said Bibaud said she had admitted trading sex for heroin.
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Rei “is fearful of retaliation in light of the illegal order she was given by Major Anderson,” said Rei’s attorney, Lenny Kesten, adding that he will file a suit against State Police leadership on Rei’s behalf similar to the one he filed on behalf of Sceviour. Kesten contended that police leadership engaged in a “criminal conspiracy — the shredding of public records and the destruction of the administrative log.”
Bibaud crashed her car on Interstate 190 in Worcester on Oct. 16. When Sceviour arrived, she reeked of alcohol and had what he described as a “heroin kit” including a dozen needles and a spoon, according to his police report. She admitted performing sex acts on men to support her addiction, according to his original report, and offered sex to the trooper in return for leniency.
Sceviour called Rei to the scene to perform the drug test.
Then Bibaud cried and screamed that her father was a judge. “He’s going to kill me,” she screamed, according to the report.
She was charged with operating under the influence of alcohol, operating under the influence of narcotics, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, a marked lanes violation, and failure to have a valid inspection sticker.
She was released and picked up by her father.
Two days later, a trooper came to Sceviour’s house on his day off to summon him to Holden — 90 miles away. He was to immediately report to the barracks as a result of an order from the colonel.
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There, Sceviour and his sergeant, Jason Conant, were given negative “supervisory observation reports” to reprimand them for including statements made by Bibaud about trading sex for drugs and leniency, and her fears that her father is “going to kill me.”
Judge Bibaud has said he did not ask for changes in his daughter’s arrest report, saying that she needs help.
Sceviour was instructed to bring the edited report to Worcester District Court — to swap for the original report in the court file, according to the lawsuit Sceviour filed earlier this week in US District Court in Boston. But officials scrapped the plan, the suit alleges, when they realized it would probably be discovered.
Instead, a top aide to Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. made an oral motion to redact the police report, which was allowed by the presiding judge.
Judge Bibaud, as well as McKeon and the state public safety secretary, Daniel Bennett, all worked in the Worcester DA’s office.
Rei’s report was even more descriptive than Sceviour’s. She called “atrocious” Bibaud’s performance on field sobriety tests. “An overwhelming odor of alcohol emanated from her breath that, even at a distance, it took my breath away,” she wrote.
Rei said that Bibaud admitted to crashing her car on purpose in a dispute with her boyfriend about drugs. She said she got a bag of dope for them to use together, but he wanted it all and punched her in the stomach.
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“Bibaud made multiple lewd comments, insinuating that she was attracted to Trooper Sceviour and willing to trade sexual favors for leniency,” wrote Rei.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea.estes@globe.com.