No Evidence of Full John Perry Report Being Sent to Fall River Police, District Attorney

FALL RIVER – In the wake of the City Council voting unanimously to further pursue a city sanctioned investigation in 2022 into wrong-doing at the Department of Community Maintenance and its former head, John Perry, it appears the 34-page finding by a private investigator was never forwarded to the Fall River Police Department.

The investigation and report, conducted and authored by Daniel Lowney, exposed a culture at DCM ranging from bullying, abuse of city resources, questionable procurement practices, environmental hazards and stolen copper wiring and scrap metal. 

The Fall River Reporter filed two open record requests for documentation recently that points to Mayor Paul Coogan and former City Administrator Seth Aitken forwarding the investigative report to city law enforcement after it was completed.

After a 16-month open records legal battle with The Herald News, a Superior Court judge in October 2023 declared that the report was public and that it be released.

At the time of the release, Coogan and Aitken told The Herald News that the report had been forwarded to the police and district attorney.

However, Paul Gauvin, who was police chief at the time, contends that he never saw the John Perry report.

“It never happened. There was never a conversation about making a determination regarding the report,” said Gauvin this week.

Gauvin, a 27-year-veteran of the Fall River Police Department (FRPD), was terminated in April following a months-long investigation by an outside firm into alleged misconduct. He is appealing the termination through the Civil Service Commission.

Regarding the contention that the FRPD had received a copy of the Perry report, Gauvin said he wasn’t aware of the administration’s claim until he read it in a news report by The Herald News in November 2023. Gauvin said he even reached out to members of his command staff, who also denied seeing the Perry report.

On Wednesday, the FRPD responded to the records request, citing that no such document existed. A request for similar documentation from the mayor’s office is still pending.

During the Perry investigation, 48 witnesses were questioned with the promise of anonymity.

Partial report given by administration?

On Tuesday, Mayor Coogan said he recalled FRPD detectives did receive what he termed a portion of the report that resulted in an investigation into allegations of misappropriation of funds by a DCM clerk, which Gauvin confirmed. The case was reportedly forwarded to the Bristol County District Attorney’s office which declined to prosecute.

However, a review of the private investigator’s report shows just one witness referenced the allegation of stolen cash that was not pursued by Lowney who was directed by the administration to monitor Perry’s comings and goings in city hall and to interview willing DCM staff.

“[Redacted name] did not have any new information on John Perry. She had her own concerns regarding the office she works within and with a separate employee unrelated to any Perry issues. That information was verbally passed onto both Mayor Coogan and City Administrator Seth Aitken by this investigator. It involves the accusations of possible misappropriation of incoming cash and funds into her office, lack of accountability in the bookkeeping of finances within her office,” wrote Lowney.

City Council willing to fund their own DCM  investigation

On Tuesday, the City Council acted in the affirmative on a resolution that would pass the Perry report to the State Auditor, Massachusetts Attorney General, Massachusetts Inspector General, U.S. District Attorney, Bristol County District Attorney, and Fall River Police Department with the hope that at least one agency would take up an investigation into DCM.

At the urging of councilor Cliff Ponte, who co-authored the resolution with Shawn Cadime, the Council approved an Aug. 15 deadline to receive responses from the various law enforcement agencies. If no agency is willing to take up the matter, then the Council will find funding to conduct its own investigation.

During the Council discussion on Tuesday, Ponte said he heard from a source that there was a directive to stop the investigation “because there would be too many people harmed by this.”

“That wasn’t the right thing to do. The right thing to do was to finish the investigation, not give a severance package and actually file a complaint if necessary to find out what really happened,” said Ponte.

In an agreement between Perry and the city, he was given a nearly $65,000 payout for the former DCM director to step down.

A judge awarded The Herald News legal fees connected to the open records lawsuit, which was originally estimated at $137,000. The media company and the city negotiated a payment of $50,000.

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