Reilly's lapse in judgment
Could we please just stipulate that Tom Reilly is a really nice guy and a very good friend and move on to his stunning lapse in judgment?
Compassion is commendable, but it does not negate an attorney general's role as the state's chief law enforcement officer. He forgot that when he intervened for a friend in a drunken driving case that left two teenage sisters from Southborough dead.
There was nothing misplaced about Reilly's sympathy for his friend, Christopher Murphy, the girls' father and a donor to his gubernatorial campaign. It is his account of his telephone call to Worcester District Attorney John J. Conte that strains credulity.
Maybe, as he says, Reilly intended nothing more than to spare the Murphy family further publicity. But did he not consider that a consequence of his call might be Conte's disinclination to find a basis for charges against the host of the party where, witnesses told police, the sisters had been drinking before they slammed into a utility pole?
Reilly says he urged Conte to withhold autopsy results from reporters, not from police probing the circumstances surrounding the one-car crash last October that killed the driver, Shauna Murphy, 17, and her 15-year-old sister, Meghan, and injured a friend. But that explanation presumes two things Reilly knows better than to presume: that a veteran prosecutor needs a reminder that autopsy reports are private, and that Conte might release the records to the press. In his 30 years as district attorney, Conte's typical exchange with reporters has involved the phrase ''no comment."
That changed on Friday. Conte got uncharacteristically chatty when Reilly's office went into major damage control to stem criticism of his intervention in the Murphy case. The two just had ''a casual conversation," Conte told NECN, insisting incorrectly that civil penalties are the worst a host who allowed a minor to consume alcohol in his home could face in Massachusetts. On the contrary, the law provides criminal penalties -- up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine -- for a host who knows underage drinking is taking place on his property. Two years ago, in the first application of the law against a host who did not provide the alcohol but tolerated its consumption, a Scituate teenager was ordered to perform community service after one of his guests crashed a car, killing two teenage girls.
Reilly thinks the question of his role is irrelevant and impertinent. It isn't. The public is entitled to ask whether Reilly's call had a chilling effect on an ongoing police investigation, as Northborough Police Chief Mark Leahy has implied. Leahy has all but been called a liar for his efforts to find the truth.
We cannot have it both ways on underage drinking and drunken driving. We cannot decry the carnage and then pretend that it's not our sons and our friends' daughters who are carrying car keys in one hand and Poland Spring bottles filled with vodka in the other. We cannot toughen the laws and close our eyes at the same time. Had Shauna struck a car instead of a utility pole, had the crash killed the driver of another vehicle instead of Shauna and Meghan, the facts would be laid bare in open court. The questions are no less important because the sisters were the ones who died. Even assuming Reilly's best intentions, who is protected by secrecy? The Murphy girls are dead; their heartbroken parents have access to those toxicology reports. It is easy enough to demonize the media, but is there no merit in the cautionary tale?
''We have a great deal of difficulty focusing on underage drinking. If we think it only happens to certain people, in certain parts of town, we are kidding ourselves," said Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley. ''Finding out why something happened can help prevent it from happening to someone else's kids."
As Reilly's friends in law enforcement close ranks to protect him, just as he and the Worcester district attorney closed ranks to protect the Murphy family, it begs the question: Who is protecting the people of the Commonwealth?
Eileen McNamara is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at mcnamara@globe.com. 