In a statement on Wednesday night, Walsh said he had appointed Chief Superintendent Gregory Long to serve as interim commissioner, while the city hired an outside lawyer “to conduct a full and impartial investigation” on allegations that White lobbied and threatened shoot his then wife, also a Boston policeman, who was later ordered to stay away from his family.
“These disturbing issues were not known to me or my team, but they should be at the forefront,” said Walsh, who was in Washington, DC, to his nominating hearing on Thursday to become President Biden’s Secretary of Labor. “Upon hearing of these serious accusations, I acted immediately.”
O Globo lobbied the Police Department for the first time last week over White’s work history, including three cases of internal affairs, just hours after Walsh announced that he would appoint him a commissioner. White had served as Gross’s chief of staff. The department provided some basic information, but refused to provide cases of internal affairs.
The Walsh government responded on Wednesday after a Globe reporter brought to the city the domestic violence charges that were described in court documents.
A judge issued a restraining order on May 5, 1999, which forced White to leave his home, stay away from his wife and children and hand over his service weapon. O Globo could not find evidence that White was accused of a crime. At the time, he denied the charges in lawsuits.
White’s wife accused him of pushing and hitting her once, according to court records. A friend of the couple also told police that White – after a confrontation with his wife and another acquaintance – said he “wanted to shoot her and him”, according to a summary of an interview by a Boston police detective. which was included in an inventory file and family court.
White’s daughter, then 17, told the detective that her father told him not to scare him when he was sleeping because “I sleep with a gun under my pillow”.
White’s abrupt suspension raises a number of questions about whether the check, if any, was made before Walsh last Thursday appointed White to one of the city’s most important positions. One of the cases of internal affairs requested by the Globe coincided with the deadline for reporting domestic violence, although it was not possible to confirm that they were connected.
In his statement, Walsh said he asked White “to quickly take over the role of police commissioner” last Friday so that Gross could spend more time with his family. Walsh made the decision in what is likely to be the last days of his government, shortly before being questioned at the Senate confirmation hearing.
While Boston’s mayors have exclusive authority to appoint the police commissioner, the city is often in no hurry, conducting national searches, nominating finalists and making efforts to engage the public, which some criminal justice experts say has become increasingly most vital at the time when trust between the police and the people it serves has eroded.
City Council President Kim Janey, who will become acting mayor when Walsh leaves office, said in a statement that she takes “any allegations of this nature very seriously”.
“I had the opportunity to work with Commissioner White while on the Council, but this is the first time I have heard of this issue and I am deeply concerned,” said Janey in a statement issued before Walsh said he was suspending White. “The public deserves transparency.”
A Globe investigation published in December found that Boston police officers accused of crimes in the past decade often found a justice system more lenient than that faced by civilians. Sometimes the allegations were investigated internally and not shared with prosecutors.
The department’s current domestic violence policy notes that “prison is the preferred answer.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement that his office was unaware of the charges against White and could not comment on them.
At White’s inauguration this week, Walsh spoke of the department’s commitment to “accountability and transparency”. But the process for appointing Commissioner White was surprisingly opaque.
Under state law, Boston police commissioners serve five-year terms, although it was not immediately clear whether White served for five full years or fulfilled Gross’s remaining term, who was appointed in 2018.
White has a long history of public service, working first as a fireman before joining the police force. The department once described him as a “respected street cop who spent his career policing the neighborhoods where he grew up – Roxbury and Dorchester”. He graduated from Jeremiah E. Burke High School and, as a police officer, graduated in 2005 in legal studies specializing in criminal justice from Newbury College.
In 1999, White was a sergeant and married to a fellow Boston police officer for almost 20 years. In May of that year, White’s wife at the time wrote in the injunction request that “we have a lot of discussion and he is always trying to push me down and I am afraid he will come in and kill me because he is angry.” The globe is not identifying the woman because she was the potential victim of domestic violence. Contacted by phone, she declined to comment.
In a subsequent divorce filing in September 2000, a lawyer representing White’s wife wrote: “The husband admitted that he hit his wife (once) and slept with a gun under his pillow.” A lawyer for the future commissioner wrote that his client “vehemently denies assaulting his wife [or] threatening to harm it. “
However, White’s lawyer also wrote that “the Husband admits that there were incidents of struggle between the Parties and that, on some occasions, they escalated to some physical contact by both Parties, including the Wife.” But White’s lawyer argued that the restraining order and allegations of abuse were an attempt to alienate White from his home and children and “humiliate him personally and professionally”.
White noted in his legal records that his wife’s claims were contradictory. She claimed in a divorce application that he hit her once, but a police report dated May 4, 1999, about the threat of shooting her, noted that she told the police that they “had fights in the past, but without abuse physicist”.
The same day, a separate police report was filed against his wife for harassment because she allegedly called the Roxbury police station looking for White and shouted at the policeman who answered the phone, according to records included in her divorce file.
Boston was often content to hire its police commissioner from within its own ranks, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, an organization that helps cities in their search for new leadership.
Both previous commissioners – Gross and William Evans – had spent their entire careers in the Police Department. And despite the natural attraction of work for national candidates, city officials rarely work outside the city limits.
“Most of the time, Boston is the kind of place where the mayor knows who he or she wants, chooses and that’s it,” said Wexler, who once served as an assistant to the Boston Police Department commissioner. “Some cities, that’s what they do.”
But even in these cases, attempts have often been made to bring together a wide range of candidates.
In 1985, then Mayor Raymond Flynn traveled to Philadelphia and New York to interview candidates for the post of commissioner before deciding on his friend, Francis Roache, a longtime Boston police officer.
And in 2006, then Mayor Thomas M. Menino hired Edward F. Davis from the Lowell Police Department only after a nationwide search that included interviews with half a dozen candidates.
Last week after his appointment, White promised in a brief interview that he would work “to ensure that we are very transparent so that the public has confidence in us”.
“There will be no major changes at this time,” he said. “The main thing is to just go through the door and make sure the ship is going straight. I think the department is moving in a big direction going forward. “
Andrew Ryan can be reached at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @globeandrewryan. Dugan Arnett can be reached at [email protected].