Healey Sends Letter Inviting Hodgson to Speak With AG’s Office
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has sent a letter to Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, inviting him to speak with her office after Hodgson said the AG’s Office failed to interview him regarding a May 1 melee at the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigrant Detention Center in Dartmouth.
Healey’s office issued its 60-page report on December 15, stating that “institutional failures and poor decisions” by leadership at the sheriff's office culminated in a “calculated use of force” that “unnecessarily caused or risked harm to everyone involved."
Sheriff Hodgson shot back in a press conference the next day, calling Healey’s report “baseless” and “politically motivated.” Hodgson also claimed that while compiling the evidence for its report, the AG’s Office never reached out to him for an interview, despite the fact that he said he was “the only one who got hurt” in the fracas between BCSO staff and a group of 10 immigrant detainees who refused to be taken to the jail’s medical wing for COVID-19 testing.
Hodgson says he was struck by a chair that a detainee is alleged to have thrown at him, causing a shoulder injury that the sheriff says has led to him still dealing with “nerve” issues, and chastised Healey’s report by saying she was “weaponizing” her office to combat those she disagrees with politically.
“She didn’t want to know the truth,” Hodgson said of Healey’s investigation.
In response to Hodgson’s comments, Healey sent a letter to the sheriff, dated today, inviting him to speak with her office.
“I understand from your recent public statements that you are disappointed that you were not interviewed as part of my office’s investigation,” Healey wrote. “While I fail to understand why you would now object to not being interviewed – when you knew about our investigation for months and never once reached out to provide information beyond that which we requested – my team is more than willing to speak with you or to receive any additional information about the incident you now wish to share.”
Healey noted in the letter that her staff interviewed 13 BSCO staff members “of all levels of rank” as well as collecting numerous videos and documents in regards to the incident.
“My team also considered your own descriptions of the incident as included in your incident report and your statements to the press,” Healey wrote. “To the extent you wanted to speak with us or had additional information to share beyond these sources of evidence, your counsel was in regular communication with my team, and we would have gladly received any such information or spoken with you at your request.”
Healey concluded the letter by stating that her team “remains glad to speak with” Sheriff Hodgson at his convenience, both about the incident itself and the implementation of recommendations her office has made, which she says she and her staff “continue to believe are necessary to safeguard the detained population and BSCO staff alike.”
WBSM News has reached out to the Bristol County Sheriff's Office for comment on whether or not Sheriff Hodgson will accept AG Healey's offer for an interview. We will update this story with his comments if and when they are provided.
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