Dudley District Court, where Judge Tim Bibaud presides. (GoogleMaps)
BOSTON — A decision made from a higher-up in law enforcement to strip lurid details from a State Police arrest report involving the daughter of a district court judge has now drawn the attention of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Governor Charlie Baker.
Allegations that an authority figure within either the State Police or the state judicial system admonished State Trooper Ryan Sceviour for including the alleged detail that an arrestee, Alli Bibaud, offered him sexual favors in exchange for leaving the scene of an accident she reportedly caused, first surfaced on Oct. 26 in the Worcester-based blog Turtleboy Sports. Sceviour wrote in his report that Bibaud, the daughter of Dudley District Court Judge Tim Bibaud, also told him she had provided an untold amount of sexual favors in order to land the heroin she had in her possession at the time of her arrest — a detail that was also scrubbed from the final report by as-of-yet-unknown persons.
Sceviour earlier this week sued the State Police, including Colonel Richard M. McKeon, Major Susan Anderson, and “a number of John/Jane Does,” claiming that on October 19, days after he arrested Bibaud, he woke up to someone banging on the front door of his house, a man who turned out to be another state trooper, ordering him to report to the State Police’s Holden barracks, where Sceviour works.
Sceviour added that he received two voice mail messages from State Police Lieutenant James Fogarty informing him that McKeon — the head of the State Police — wanted to speak with him regarding the arrest of a “judge’s daughter.”
Sceviour filed his lawsuit on Tuesday.
On Thursday, Baker and Healey told the Boston Herald that their offices are both looking into the matter. Healey declined to comment except to say that “the allegations are concerning.” Baker called Sceviour’s allegations “serious” and said he has asked for an investigation in order to “determine whether this was consistent with protocol or not.”
Baker also dismissed claims that his public safety secretary played a role in the ordeal.
According to State House News Service, Baker has talked to McKeon. McKeon, who was at the State House on Thursday, did not speak to reporters.
Baker would not say who was in charge of leading an investigation.
“I don’t think it’s going to take a long time to complete,” he said.
The lawsuit states that Fogarty told Sceviour and his supervisor, Sergeant Jason Conant, that Anderson had ordered both to be issued “negative ‘supervisory observation reports’” for including the statements made by Bibaud in the arrest reports.
“The written reprimand indicated that Trooper Sceviour was being disciplined for ‘the negative and derogatory statements included within the gist of your report’,” the lawsuit states. “Sgt. Conant was reprimanded for ‘approving this report and allowing inappropriate commentary to be included in the report’.”
Sceviour later asked Anderson why she had ordered the reprimand. According to the lawsuit, Anderson told Sceviour the order came from the top — McKeon.
Sceviour was then allegedly directed by Anderson to edit his original arrest report.
“Trooper Sceviour told Major Anderson that he did not want to make the edits and that he believed doing so was ‘morally vacant’,” the lawsuit states.
“If this was some random person and not a judge’s kid, none of this would be happening,” Sceviour reportedly told Anderson.
Sceviour later claimed the order constituted “illegal coercion” and claimed he was told that he’d be “subject to discharge” from his job if he did not comply.
Sceviour noted that he later reached an agreement with Anderson to mark the revised report as being edited on October 19. Anderson then allegedly directed Sceviour to bring the altered report to Worcester Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Travers and Bibaud’s defense attorney, Kara Colby. According to Sceviour, Anderson changed her mind and elected to deliver Colby’s copy herself, although Sceviour proceeded to deliver a copy to Travers “who appeared to be expecting him.”
Court records show, however, that the altered copy is no longer on file.
“On Oct. 17, Attorney Colby filed a handwritten motion asking the Court to impound Trooper Sceviour’s report on the grounds of ‘prejudicial pre-trial publicity’,” the lawsuit states, noting that the presiding judge in Worcester granted Colby’s motion. “A day after the altered report with the marking ‘Revised on Oct. 19, 2017,’ was delivered to ADA Travers, the Commonwealth brought the matter forward, at which time ADA Travers made an oral motion to redact the original, impounded report. The Motion was allowed.”
Sceviour has alleged that McKeon, Anderson, and others conspired to coerce him into altering his original report. Once Turtleboy’s story went live on October 26, alleging in part that Worcester District Attorney Joe Early had directed McKeon to order the report, according to Sceviour, McKeon ordered a State Police spokesman to “make false and derogatory statements to the media regarding Trooper Sceviour, particularly that his report included improper statements that violated the standards for report-writing and that required removal.”
That coverage is shown to have made it into a Fox 25 report that aired soon after Turtleboy first broke portions of the story.
“The revision consisted only of removal of a sensationalistic and inflammatory directly-quoted statement by the defendant, which made no contribution to proving the elements of the crimes with which she was charged. Inclusion of an unnecessary sensationalistic statement does not meet the report-writing standards required by the department,” said a State Police statement provided to the network, in addition to claiming that the agency does not track revisions made to arrest reports.
“It’s a bald-faced lie that I orchestrated it,” Bibaud told the magazine, referring to allegations made by Turtleboy that Bibaud had a hand in the alleged altering of his daughter’s arrest report.
Sceviour countered that his original report of Bibaud’s arrest “was consistent with his duties and complied with the highest standards of the State Police and the ethical responsibilities entrusted to him by the citizens of the Commonwealth.”
Bibaud, however, declined to comment when contacted by the Boston Globe this week.
Per Sceviour’s lawsuit:
“The actions of the defendants, and others to be named, in attempting to alter court records and in damaging Trooper Sceviour’s career and reputation are both shocking and outrageous.”
Then-Governor Deval Patrick nominated Bibaud for his judgeship in 2010. Bibaud previously served for 20 years as an assistant district attorney for Worcester County. During his July 2010 Governor’s Council hearing, Bibaud scored approval from four members of the eight-member panel, while four members were absent that day.
Dudley District Court, where Judge Tim Bibaud presides. (GoogleMaps) 
