"Ex-ADA says Conley fired him in retaliation; Suit contends Suffolk DA tried to force him to campaign in 2013" by Edward Mason Globe Correspondent June 27, 2015
A former Suffolk County prosecutor is suing District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, asserting he was fired for refusing to work on Conley’s failed 2013 mayoral bid.
Joseph Pagliarulo, an assistant district attorney from 1992 to 1999 and from 2003 to 2013, said in court documents that Conley’s chief of staff, John Towle, and a civilian office investigator, Michael Roberts, used “intimidation and threats” to “coerce Pagliarulo to support and campaign” for their boss and acted at Conley’s direction.
Government never does that!
The suit, filed Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court, said Pagliarulo was fired in November 2013 in retaliation for refusing to follow these orders, a violation of state law.
“This is public money and Dan Conley in this case is using it to coerce and compel a district attorney to campaign for a different office — the mayor of Boston,” said John McK. Pavlos, Pagliarulo’s lawyer. “He’s not above the law. Pagliarulo and his family are standing up to him, and they will not be bullied.”
Conley spokesman Jake Wark said it was “inaccurate and untrue” that Pagliarulo’s firing was politically motivated. He said the lawsuit “represents a work of fiction with no basis in fact, submitted years after his termination. We tried to get him the help he needed. He made a different choice.”
OMG, they are already attacking his mental stability! Smells like guilt!
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On April 1, Pagliarulo was told to take off work April 30 to collect nominating signatures for Conley.
He refused because he was campaigning for Congressman Stephen Lynch, who was running that day in a special election primary for the US Senate.
Later that morning, Conley, who’d learned Pagliarulo was not helping him, snubbed him when he said “hello” at the district attorney’s downtown office, Pagliarulo said.
OMG, how JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL!
Shortly thereafter, Roberts, a civilian investigator, called Pagliarulo’s office to tell him that Towle, the chief of staff, was “pissed.”
“Conley provides your paycheck, not Lynch,” Roberts said, according to court documents, adding that it was “expected” that he would work on the Conley campaign. Pagliarulo said he responded that he earned his paycheck as a prosecutor and would not be bullied.
Actually, it's the taxpayers and such things show you how arrogant is authority.
Pagliarulo, in court papers, portrayed himself as an exemplary employee.
In 2003, Conley promoted him to supervising attorney in West Roxbury, where he managed other prosecutors and oversaw some 3,000 cases a year. He received the “Outstanding District Court Prosecutor Award” from the lawyers he supervised, according to Pagliarulo. He received merit raises regularly and earned $77,538, according to state records.
But soon after the conversation with Roberts, Pagliarulo said, executive staff began to question his case management, and in May 2013, Towle ordered Pagliarulo to take an unpaid, involuntary leave for a mental health evaluation. Pagliarulo said it was “embarrassing” and after three days he returned to work after a doctor cleared him.
Beyond the political vituperation, if what the DA says is true about his mental capacity why was he in charge and employed so long?
See the ruthlessness of the authority that allegedly loves and protects you?
Conley is facing another workplace lawsuit from a former employee. Christina Corda, an assistant district attorney in the gang unit for seven years, filed a wage discrimination lawsuit in US District Court in Boston. Wark said they are unrelated, but noted that Pagliarulo’s decision to file his suit after this one was “telling.”
What is he trying to imply?
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UPDATES:
Suffolk DA testifies in discrimination lawsuit against his office
Jury rejects former Suffolk prosecutor’s claims of pay bias
