A Massachusetts state trooper is suing his top commanders and police force after he says he was disciplined for filing an arrest report on a judge’s daughter that included admissions of drug use, prostitution and an offer to exchange sex for leniency.
Ryan Sceviour, 29, claims top state police commanders ordered that the arrest report for 30-year-old Alli Bibaud be edited so it didn’t embarrass her or her father, Dudley District Judge Timothy Bibaud, who oversees the district’s drug court, the Boston Globe reported.
According to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by HuffPost, Alli Bibaud was arrested on Oct. 16 after she allegedly crashed her car while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Sceviour responded to the scene and reported finding her reeking of alcohol and ranting that her father, who she said is a judge, was “going to kill me.”
A search of her vehicle uncovered syringes, a metal spoon and plastic baggies, Sceviour noted in his report. Bibaud was given two Breathalyzer tests and registered blood alcohol levels of 0.224 and 0.222.
Those levels are roughly three times higher than the legal limit to drive in the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
She was arrested on charges of operating a vehicle under the influence of narcotics, operating a vehicle under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, marked lanes violation, and failure to have a valid inspection sticker.
According to the suit, Alli Bibaud admitted during her arrest to being a heroin addict who had performed sexual acts in exchange for drugs. She allegedly also offered sex to a law enforcement officer in return for leniency.
Sceviour maintains that, two days after Alli Bibaud’s arrest, he and a police sergeant who signed off on the arrest report were called to the state police barracks in Holden. There, both men were issued negative “supervisory observation reports,” reprimanded for including Bibaud’s statements to state troopers in the report and ordered to edit them out.
According to the suit, State Police Maj. Susan Anderson said Secretary of Public Safety Daniel Bennett requested the changes and the order was passed down to Col. Richard McKeon, the head of the Massachusetts State Police; Lt. Col. Daniel Risteen, who according to the state police website is in the Division of Field Services; and finally Anderson.
Bennett’s office has denied that he had any involvement in the report.
“Sec. Bennett never asked nor was he ever asked to do anything with the police report in question,” Communications Director Felix Browne told HuffPost in an email. “The first time he saw the police report was when it was referenced online.”
Sceviour’s attorney, Leonard Kesten, told Boston station WBZ-TV that Anderson ordered his client to make the edits or be fired.
“The trooper said to her this is morally corrupt, this is completely wrong, this would not be happening if this were not the daughter of a judge, and the major said you are right, I agree with you,” Kesten said of their conversation.
The lawsuit claims McKeon, Anderson and others later conspired to have the original arrest report removed from the court file and replaced with the altered report. The swap was never made, however, with the suit saying that the “conspirators realized that the place would not be successful.”
Instead, a lieutenant to the Worcester County assistant district attorney “made an oral motion to redact the original report ― removing all of the sentences State Police officials wanted out,” the Globe reported. State police said Wednesday that both versions of the report are now in the court files.
In a statement to HuffPost, state police admitted the report was revised but said supervisors are permitted to ask for changes and that such requests are “not unusual.”
“In the report in question, the revision consisted only of removal of a sensationalistic, directly-quoted statement by the defendant, which made no contribution to proving the elements of the crimes with which she was charged,” the statement reads.
“The trooper said to her this is morally corrupt, this is completely wrong, this would not be happening if this were not the daughter of a judge.”
- Leonard Kesten, attorney for state trooper Ryan Sceviour
“The removal of the inflammatory and unnecessary quotation did not change the substance of the trooper’s narrative, did not remove any elements of probable cause from the report, and, most importantly, had no impact on the charges against the defendant,” it continued.
The department did not respond to a question as to why Bibaud was not charged with soliciting sex or bribing an officer, based on the statements that she’s alleged to have made to the troopers.
Sceviour’s lawsuit further says that troopers are trained “to include all extraordinary statements made by criminal defendants when writing a report after an arrest for ‘Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence.’”
News of the redacted arrest log was first reported by a Holden-based blog that accused Bibaud’s father of requesting the changes.
Judge Bibaud, reached by Worcester Magazine, denied the claim, calling it “a bold-based lie.”
“I never had anything to do with contacting the State Police or the DA. My sole concern was toward my kid,” he told the magazine.
He added that he was trying to get help for his daughter. The Globe reported that Alli Bibaud was admitted to a rehab facility a day after her arrest and did not appear in person for her arraignment in Framingham District Court last month.
Sceviour’s complaint, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, claims the Massachusetts State Police and Sceviour’s commanders have inflicted “damage to his reputation, have negatively impacted his employment, and have caused him severe emotional distress.”
It seeks the removal of the discipline from his record, an apology, and compensatory and punitive damages.