Who is to blame?
William M. Bennett had an opportunity 16 years ago to eliminate an individual among elected town officials whose reign of corruption and fiscal incompetence brought our town government close to the brink of bankruptcy and total ethical and moral decay.
It was in 1994 when the Board of Selectmen under James Foley attempted to “clean house;” some former town officials, and officials still holding offices at the time, conveyed town properties to themselves or their families without paying for the properties. Others claimed to be non profit organizations to avoid paying property taxes. The tax collector embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars and was convicted and sent to jail. Earl Johnson (pictured above) was sitting on the Board of Assessors at the time.
In December of 1994, the Board of Selectmen published the final report, the legendary D.D. 111 report. The report exposed the full scale of the illegal activity by Earl Johnson and others and began with the following introduction:
This report encompasses the one hundred sales of town owned real estate by the town officials. These sales have generated losses to the town due to the inability of the former boards of selectmen, assessors, as well as the former tax collectors, treasurers, accountants, town clerks, and town council, to follow Mass. General Laws. In short the entire government.To read the entire report, click here!
Subsequently Earl Johnson resigned from the Board of Assessors to avoid being investigated by the State Ethics Commission.
The Board of Selectmen sent a written request to William M. Bennett’s office seeking assistance in the investigation and probable prosecution of Earl Johnson for the illegal conveyance of a 12 plus acre parcel owned by the town to his family.
The request was ignored by William Bennett and an opportunity to get rid of the most corrupt individual this town has ever seen wasted. According to news articles published in area news papers, Bennett did not even care to return phone calls placed by news reporters in connection with the D.D. 111 report.
Untarnished and emboldened by Bennett’s inactions, Earl Johnson was re-elected by the unassuming voters and given the opportunity to appoint other corrupt individuals to sit on the several board’s he then corrupted in their entirety to finish his scheme that came to be known as Johnson Landgate. His “comeback” allowed him also to appoint a criminal, Kevin Gleason, to be the custodian of the safety oft his community and protector of our freedom.
It does not surprise that three of the five Firefighters who set buildings on fire out of boredom and to get paid to fight the fires they themselves started in reckless disregard of other’s lives were appointed by Johnson, Wettlaufer, and Petersen, and found a place in the present town government.
While Earl Johnson is no longer sitting on the selectboard, he is STILL a member of the Board of assessors and will soon be named as defendant in another lawsuit in his capacity as assessor.
Ethics is not something that can be gauged or measured, either you have it or you don’t; we all know to which category Wettlaufer and Johnson can count themselves.
William Bennett’s fifth term will end on December 31, 2010. Bennett pledged not to seek re-election. Can we believe him? Back in 1990, Bennett pledged to serve a maximum of two terms after succeeding his predecessor, the late Matthew J. Ryan Jr.
"Corruption undermines everything the law enforcement community works towards. It impoverishes whole communities, and threatens the safety and security of the many for the benefit of a very few"
INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble
September 6, 2010, Peter Frei
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Read also:
Earl and the Crow.Earl Johnson, Mr. Grinch or Santa Clause?
Wettlaufer, Johnson, and Foster defeated again; when will they stop wasting money?
Earl Johnson’s chosen one, Kevin Gleason, sentenced to jail.
Earl Johnson resigned, the D.D.111 Scandal.
Riddle (no.3)
Riddle (no.2)
Johnson’s failed attempt to jail LaMountain
Homes built by the Johnson’s, illegal!