Trooper says police halted his gigs as DJ

Trooper Anthony Dear says two police detectives ruined his second career as a DJ by intimidating clubs from hiring him. (PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF)

Massachusetts State Trooper Anthony Dear doesn't work details. Instead, with the blessing of his superiors, he has moonlighted for a decade as a disc jockey at some of Boston's hottest nightspots.

But, now, in a rare slander lawsuit involving two of the state's largest law enforcement agencies, Dear is accusing two Boston police detectives who oversee the city's licensed establishments of destroying his second career and reputation. He says the Boston officers seem to resent the presence of an off-duty state trooper in establishments they police.

"It's caused financial hardship to my family and embarrassment," said Dear, 36, a 14-year State Police veteran, as he spoke publicly for the first time about the allegations in a suit he filed in Suffolk Superior Court in August.

The suit says two detectives assigned to the city's Licensing Commission, Sergeant John Devaney and Kevin McGill, filed a scathing report with the commission last year that falsely accused Dear of operating a promotion company that holds events at nightclubs that are "chronically a danger to the public safety of the patrons and employees inside the nightclubs."

The suit, which also names the city as a defendant, says the detectives pressured nightclub owners to stop hiring Dear, effectively ending his work as a disc jockey.

The Boston Police Department and Mayor Thomas M. Menino's office declined to comment because of the pending lawsuit.

Boston Licensing Board chairman Daniel F. Pokaski called Devaney and McGill dedicated, honest officers who were doing their jobs when they told city officials their concerns about Dear and the promotion company they suspected he operated, Elite Productions.

"I don't think Devaney and McGill want to do anything that would hurt Dear, and they certainly don't want to do anything that would start a war between the Boston Police Department and the State Police," Pokaski said. "They're just concerned about how these places are operating when Elite Productions is doing the promoting. It just comes down to one fact: Devaney and McGill are doing their job."

Pokaksi said his board has never told anybody to not hire Dear and that the board has no jurisdiction over disc jockeys or promoters. He also pointed out that license holders are responsible for any violations on their premises.

Patricia Malone, chairwoman of Boston's Office of Consumer Affairs and Licensing, declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said the city has no rules for promoters. She said the license holder is responsible for any violations.

Dear's lawyer, Timothy M. Burke of Needham, said the police report made untrue allegations against Dear.

"He's not responsible for the operation of these nightclubs; he's simply there to spin discs," Burke said.

The suit says Devaney and McGill cited the upscale 33 Restaurant & Lounge on Stanhope Street in Boston for overcrowding last Nov. 22 because the club, with a legal capacity of 285 people, had 415 patrons inside.

The police report, written by McGill, said Dear was present that night. The report also said Dear owned Elite Productions and that the company ran events at other clubs where detectives observed overcrowding, underage patrons consuming alcohol, assaults, disorder, fire code violations, and over-served, intoxicated patrons.

"It is my belief that the Licensing Board should direct all licensed premises in the city that they not use Elite Productions and Mr. Dear to promote events at nightclubs without proper notification and adherence to all rules and regulations of the Licensing Boards," the police report says.

Dear said he doesn't own Elite Productions, which he described as an Internet creation that promotes him and other disc jockeys through a newsletter.

A State Police report attached to the lawsuit says that the agency launched an internal investigation of the Boston police detectives' allegations against Dear and concluded they were false. In the report, a State Police captain concluded that Devaney "engaged in a deliberate and successful campaign to malign and impugn" Dear's standing in the entertainment community and "misused his authority" by intimidating nightclub owners to not hire Dear.

The captain recommended the Boston police Internal Affairs Unit investigate Devaney, but neither the State Police nor the Boston Police Departments would comment on whether that had happened.