No charges filed against former Romney aide

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff

Jay Garrity, the former operations director for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign who resigned last July amid allegations he repeatedly impersonated police officers, will not be charged in connection with a call made to a Wilmington drain-cleaning company from someone calling himself "Trooper Garrity."

"We have no plans to charge Mr. Garrity,'' said Jake Wark, a spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. "While the investigation does remain open, at this stage of the investigation, evidence consistently points away from Mr. Garrity.''

Garrity was identified in June 2007 as the focus of a State Police investigation into a call made to Wayne's Drains of Wilmington, in which a man calling himself "Trooper Garrity of the Massachusetts State Police” The caller threatened to issue a citation against a driver of a Wayne's Drains van he said was speeding and cutting off cars in the Ted Williams Tunnel. Published reports, which Garrity and his lawyer denied, said the cell phone number from which the call was placed was traced back to Garrity.

Wark said that "investigators have reviewed various phone records, financial transactions, and other documents'' that led them to conclude Garrity should not face charges, but he declined to elaborate. Wark stressed that "Mr. Garrity was neither charged nor named as a suspect in the investigation.''

Garrity was also investigated but never charged by the New Hampshire attorney general's office after a New York Times reporter said Garrity last June waved him to the side of the road, ordered him to stop following Romney's motorcade, and said he had run the reporter's license plate number. In 2004, Boston Police issued a citation against Garrity for driving a police-style Crown Victoria with a siren, red and blue lights, and public address system that lacked a special state permit for the police gear. Garrity also faced questions about badge-like metal discs embossed with a governor's office seal.

Garrity's attorney, R. Robert Popeo, was in a meeting and not immediately available for comment today. When asked last Friday about speculation Garrity might be dropped as a focus of the investigation, Popeo reiterated that Garrity was "absolutely not responsible" for the phone call and criticized Conley for taking months to formally declare Garrity would not face charges.

Dot Barme, manager of Wayne's Drains, said after seeing footage of the 29-year-old Garrity on television last year, she was not surprised to hear the district attorney has no plans to bring charges. On her answering-service recording, Barme said, "The voice definitely does not match [Garrity's] face. This definitely to me sounds like an older gentleman. I didn't expect the gentleman to be as young as he appeared on TV,'' Barme said, but based on her experience talking to people on the phone all day long for years, more like someone in his 50s.

"I hope they find out who it was,'' Barme said. "That's really not right to impersonate a police officer.''

Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom did not respond to a request for comment. When Garrity stepped down from the campaign Romney called him "a good guy" and said, "I give him the benefit of the doubt" about the police-impersonation allegations.

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