Romney aide takes paid leave amid probe
Operations chief denies impersonating officer
The director of operations on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign took an indefinite paid leave of absence yesterday after becoming the focus of an investigation into allegations that he posed as a state trooper in a phone call complaining to a company about one of its drivers.
The Globe reported yesterday that Jay Garrity, 29, of Boston is the primary subject of a State Police investigation into a May 13 call to a Wilmington drain and sewer cleaning business, in which a caller complains about the erratic driver of a company van. During the phone call, a recording of which was made by the company's answering service and obtained by the Globe, the man identifies himself as "Trooper Garrity of the Massachusetts State Police" and threatens to cite a driver he says was speeding and cutting off cars in the Ted Williams Tunnel.
Law enforcement sources said Garrity became the focus of the investigation after the cellphone used to make the call was traced to him. The number has since been disconnected. The State Police have said there is no Trooper Garrity assigned to the barracks identified in the phone call.
A lawyer for Garrity adamantly denied that his client placed the call.
"He didn't make the phone call," said attorney Stephen Jones. "He has no connection whatsoever to the number that the call was made from. He has volunteered -- in fact, insisted -- that he wants to have a voice analysis done, which will clear him of the fact that somebody is saying he made a phone call."
Meanwhile, Garrity's own driving record reveals that his license expired in May after his failure to pay Boston parking tickets from 2005 and 2006 and parking tickets from Logan International Airport last year.
"Until he pays those, he would not be able to renew his license, which expired on his birthday," said Ann Dufresne, a spokeswoman for the Registry of Motor Vehicles. "If you're driving with an expired license, you don't have a license." Records indicate that Garrity turned 29 in May.
If stopped while driving with an expired license, a motorist could get a warning, a fine of between $100 and $200, or be arrested, said Dufresne. Garrity drives as part of his duties with the campaign, said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for the former governor's presidential campaign.
The problems for Garrity began this week when the New Hampshire attorney general's office opened an investigation into a complaint that a Romney campaign aide, identified as Garrity, pulled over a
Jones acknowledges that Garrity spoke with the reporter who was trailing two campaign vehicles but only after the reporter had pulled over behind the campaign caravan, which had stopped to check directions.
"No plate was ever run," Jones said. "He didn't threaten to run his plate. He didn't have to. He knew who he was when he saw him."
New Hampshire law bars private citizens from accessing license plate databases.
Madden confirmed that Garrity took the leave to clear up both complaints.
This week was not the first time Garrity has been accused of having law enforcement aspirations. In 2004, he was cited by Boston police for driving a Crown Victoria with equipment that required a special state permit and without an inspection sticker. The vehicle, found illegally parked at 4 a.m. on St. Patrick's Day with the keys in the ignition, was equipped with red and blue lights mounted in the grill, a siren, a PA system, and strobe lights. He also had a nightstick and identification showing a State Police patch that read "Official Business," according to a Globe account of the 2004 police report.
At the time, Romney's spokeswoman said that Garrity, a former federal employee who previously worked as a security consultant, had a federal permit for the equipment in his car, but not a Massachusetts permit.
When Romney was governor, Garrity led the operations crew whose members orchestrated the governor's events while wearing earpieces, communicating by microphones tucked into their suit sleeves, and wearing lapel pins bearing the Roman numerals LXX, in honor of Romney, the 70th governor of Massachusetts.
Prior to working for Romney, Garrity worked on George W. Bush's presidential campaign in 2000 and for former Connecticut governor John Rowland, according to a biography on the website of the Hopkins School, a private secondary school in Connecticut that lists him as an alumnus.
Scott Helman of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at ebbert@globe.com. 
