The public knows better
Thomas F. Reilly may be a lot of things in this life. He may be politically naïve. He may be unprepared for prime time. He may be in dire need of advice that's better than what he's getting now.
But Reilly, a longtime prosecutor, is certainly not unethical, and he's absolutely not corrupt. His role in trying to protect a family friend who lost two teenage daughters in a self-inflicted car crash was an act of basic human decency, nothing more, nothing less.
For the uninformed, Reilly made a phone call. He acknowledges that. About a month after his friend's daughters died in a Southborough crash in which the older sister was driving, he rang up John J. Conte, the district attorney in Worcester County, and asked that confidential autopsy results not be released to an inquiring reporter. Obviously, the family didn't want to suffer through any more public scrutiny of the girls' deaths.
By last night, all perspective was lost. The governor and lieutenant governor accused Reilly of interfering in a criminal investigation. The Globe obtained a police report containing strong indications that the girls were drinking at a friend's party before the crash. The police chief in Northborough said he was stymied by the district attorney in his investigation of who supplied alcohol to the girls. The silly season of the 2006 gubernatorial campaign had officially begun.
I talked with Reilly last night about the police report, about the accounts that one of the sisters showed up at a party in Northborough with vodka, about the witnesses who said the sisters were drinking before they left.
''The police chief has a right to pursue criminal charges and should pursue them," Reilly said, his voice low and hushed.
''I have no idea what went on between the police chief and the district attorney," he said. ''If the police chief has evidence of criminal conduct, he should charge them and pursue that. I don't know where he's getting me mixed up in this. Perhaps he can clarify it. I can't. I've never spoken to him."
Reilly added, ''The law is very clear on this, that autopsy records are not public records. Did I try to protect the family's privacy? Yes, I did. But in a criminal investigation, it's clearly relevant."
Amid the swirl of speculation and accusations, Governor Mitt Romney kicked the story up a notch yesterday by asking, ''Why would we ever want to hush up the truth about alcohol in an accident?" It was by all measures a shocking and uncharacteristic spectacle. The Mitt Romney I know is an uncommonly decent and compassionate guy, not prone to tawdry political opportunism. The Romney who addressed the news media yesterday is a stranger to me.
''I was horrified," Reilly said, his voice clearly strained. ''I was horrified when I heard about it, that someone would try to politicize the deaths of two young children. I spoke to that father today, and they are grieving. They will be grieving for the rest of their lives.
''Those girls made a tragic mistake that night, and they paid for it with their lives. Everything else is irrelevant. I'm irrelevant. For the father to see the pictures of his daughters again in the papers -- they can't take any more."
I asked him if he regretted making the phone call that has caused such a political firestorm, and he didn't hesitate.
''Protecting that family and their private medical records -- no, I don't regret making that call and keeping those records confidential," he replied. ''I would do that for any family to protect their rights and their deceased children's rights. There are real people involved here, two parents and a brother who have lost their daughters and their sister. That's bad enough; don't make it any worse."
Reilly will do plenty of things wrong over the course of this long gubernatorial campaign. He may or may not prove himself capable to lead the state.
But trying to protect the privacy and dignity of a suffering friend who lost two teenage daughters in a horrible crash, that's not a major flaw. And the public knows better than that.
Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com. 