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‘Filegate’ investigation concludes no criminal activity

Date: 1/23/2015


CHICOPEE – The investigation  of how files were handled in the transition between the administrations of Michael Bissonnette and Richard Kos has led to a conclusion that Bissonnette’s “actions were inappropriate” but not illegal.

According to the Office of Attorney General (AG) no public documents were identified as being destroyed. 

The investigation took a year to finish and involved the interviewing of 19 people and the review of hundreds of documents at City Hall and at Bissonnette’s private law office.

“Investigators were unable to identify any specific public record that Mayor Bissonnette or his staff illegally destroyed,” John Verner, chief of the Criminal Bureau in the Office of Attorney General wrote to Mayor Richard Kos in a letter dated Jan. 20.

Verner did criticize Bissonnette for his handling of some records during his move out of City Hall.

He wrote, “Mayor Bissonette stated to both the public and to law enforcement that he made an effort to prepare the office for a smooth transition by cleaning his office and computer. He states that he beleived that all of the city’s electronic data was preserved on both onsite and offsite servers and that he did not understand that he was deleting documents beyond those stored on his desktop computer when he deleted the shared drive. Further, to the extent he possesses public records in his office that he did not transfer to the Law Department, Mayor Bissonnette stated that he beleived the ‘official’ copies were maintained by other departments (a statement that we have corroborated to a large extend) and did not realize that public records were amongst the documents the he hurriedly boxed up and removed, Not only did he fail to save the files on his computer to the shared drive as instructed by the IT Department, he took the affirmative step to delete the contents of the shared drive, effectively hindering the efforts of his staff to comply with state law.

“Mayor Bissonette’s actions were inappropriate. Current law provides no civil remedy for this office to pursue under these circumstances. Thus in the absence  of an identified public record that was unlawfully destroy, we have little or no basis to pursue criminal charges.”

Bissonnette told Reminder Publications he knew that no emails had been destroyed as during his administration the back-up system was developed and installed. He explained it was added to the city’s computer infrastructure when it was discovered that emails from the previous two administrations had not been saved.

He stated that when he took over as mayor, the office was “a filthy mess” and the computers were infected with viruses. He wanted to leave Kos a cleaner office than he had been left. 

Bissonnette added that paper files had been brought from his office to the Law Department Conference Room with the intention it would be easier for Kos to go through them there. 

He said whatever misunderstanding or questions Kos or his staff had could have been cleared up with a phone call and yet Kos “persisted in unfounded allegations.”

Bissonnette admitted the transition could have been handled better and that several letters from constituents were mistakenly  packed in boxes that went to  his office. Investigators had also discovered that “copies of public records in recycling bins in City Hall,” according to Verner’s letter.

He said that he is “just as outraged now as I was in January [2014].”

Bissonnette added, “I’m going to consider my legal options and my political ones as well.”  

Kos released the following statement: “I wish to acknowledge the response provided to this office on Jan. 21 regarding the investigation into allegations of missing files and records of the city of Chicopee. The investigation was conducted at the request of Chicopee City Solicitor Marshall Moriarty’s memo dated Jan. 15, 2014 as of a result of deleted computer data and empty files in the mayor’s office.
“While we acknowledge that the investigation conducted by the office of Martha Coakley did not rise to the level sufficient for criminal prosecution, it is highlighted in their response that conditions existed reflecting that the former mayor’s handling of Chicopee’s records was ‘less than exemplary’ when deleting and removing records, and that his actions were ‘inappropriate.’  

“The goal of this administration is to utilize the areas of concern identified by the AG’s office as guidelines to prevent events such as this from ever occurring in the city of Chicopee.  In light of last January’s situation, steps were immediately taken in early 2014 to remediate the deficient areas also outlined in the AGO’s letter.   This office’s goal is to continue to work to provide the citizens and businesses of Chicopee total transparency with regards to City services and fiscal responsibility.”