If there are any thinking people left who think we are living in a postracial society, we need look no further than Bristol County to find damning evidence to the contrary. Lost amid the big stories of the Hernandez and Tsarnaev trials over the past few weeks was reporting on a very disturbing and outrageous scandal involving state prosecutors who amused themselves by trading racist emails on state time, with state resources. In particular, former Plymouth County assistant DA Karen H. O’Sullivan seems to have gotten a kick out of mocking people of other races, as well as making jokes at the expense of rape victims, while she was supposed to be working to enforce the law and ensure that justice is done for victims and the accused. Some of the emails were detailed by the Brockton Enterprise and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly:
“In one of the emails, dated Sept. 8, 2008, O’Sullivan forwarded a picture of a young child in a Ku Klux Klan costume to a fellow prosecutor,” an online article by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly states. “In another, dated Dec. 5, 2011, O’Sullivan forwarded an email ‘for my liberal friends’ labeled ‘black woman with one white boob and one black boob.’ A photo of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with President Obama and Vice President Biden follows.”
In another email conversation, dated July 27, 2009, a fellow prosecutor asked her colleagues if anyone could provide ‘sample jury instructions on constructive force’ for a child rape case in which a defendant allegedly got his 15-year-old niece drunk and performed oral sex on her,” …. “‘[S]ounds like she wanted it,’ O’Sullivan responds.”
The good news is that Karen O’Sullivan no longer works in the Plymouth County DA’s office.
The bad news is that she is currently the First Assistant DA in the Bristol County DA’s office.
Even more disturbingly, when confronted with the evidence of O’Sullivan’s infantile sense of humor, staggering stupidity, and overt bigotry, Bristol County DA Thomas Quinn rushed to her defense!
“I have gotten to know her and have found her to be a person of high character and an appropriate representative of the district attorney’s office to people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds,” Quinn added.
Well, that’s very kind of Mr. Quinn, but let me ask my BMG friends this: If you were a member of a racial minority, or a young rape victim, would you have confidence in Karen O’Sullivan’s ability to treat you fairly? Would a sensible judge have any choice but to throw out convictions that O’Sullivan has obtained, given her obvious biases? Who knows how much damage is done to the cause of justice by allowing such unqualified, bigoted people to wield positions of such great power and influence?
This is all part of a longer story, full of stupid shenanigans, allegations and counter-allegations. Plymouth DA Cruz was accused by former underlings of pressuring staff to contribute to his re-election campaign. There are apparently other unnamed prosecutors who also find this sort of thing funny, and who also should be identified and removed, if they haven’t already been forced out.
However, I think these emails speak for themselves, and make at least one course of action abundantly clear: Karen H. O’Sullivan should not be working for the state in any capacity, especially in such a powerful position in the criminal justice system.
Please call Bristol County DA Thomas Quinn at (508) 997-0711 and tell him racism has no rightful place in the criminal justice system. Tell him to immediately terminate the employment of Karen O’Sullivan.
It’s patheric that he released these e-mails for no other reason to than to screw her because she had the audacity to testify truthfully and under oath for the defense in a criminal case.
Cruz’s office is known to be full of nut jobs,
The prosecution of the day care worker seems outrageous to me. Never been done before and the evidence indicates that underings (who also have mandatory reporting requirements I believe) reported the abuse to her and she reported it to her bosses. Why only her?
And they’re going after her husband’s police job because he exercised his constitutional right and didn’t cooperate with the police. (But he did lie to them and say his wife wasn’t home when they came to arrest her.)
This case should come back to bite Cruz in the ass and he should have a solid opponent next election. IMHO
I placed the call.
A live person responds to our phone calls, even it is 3:30 a.m. before sunrise.
I called up expecting only to leave a voice mail message, but a woman responds to our phone calls… sometimes even outside office hours, after we stay on the line for the initial pre-recorded message.