Seven Months Later: Why is the Jacob Pothier investigation taking so long?

New Bedford teenager Jacob Pothier was killed in a car accident in January of this year and seven months later the family is still looking for answers.

From the start, details about the accident that claimed the life of the 18-year-old Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School student have been difficult to come by. Even for the family of Jacob. Pothier’s family submitted a request to the Dartmouth Police Department just days after the accident but were denied their request:

While major news outlets reported the accident and Pothier’s death, only Fall River Reporter uncovered that the other occupant of the car Pothier was in when he died belonged to a former security officer from Pothier’s high school, Kathleen Martins. Neither the school nor Dartmouth Police Department ever disclosed her being a former employee.

We called GNBVT Superintendent Michael Watson who refused to speak with us. He also refused an in-person interview. He did, however, eventually respond to an email request about Martin’s employment:

Soon after Pothier’s death, some Facebook users were commenting on stories about the accident, and in a somewhat unprecedented step, the Dartmouth Police Department issued a statement asking the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions about the case:

One of the rumors that were circulating online was that Pothier had been in an inappropriate relationship with Martins when she was employed at GNBVT, a relationship that continued after she had resigned.

But according to the Potheir family, the rumor turned out to be true. Last month, the family of Pothier sent a letter of intent to GNBVT through their attorney, former New Bedford mayor Scott Lang, asserting that Martins and Pothier had a sexual relationship that the school failed to protect Pothier from. The letter, seeking damages in a potential civil suit, confirms what some had known to be true about the relationship between Potheir and Martins.

Fall River Reporter, in an effort to learn more about Martins and her time at GNBVT, submitted multiple records requests to the school under the Freedom of Information Act. Those requests were met with responses from a law firm representing the school, another move that is uncommon for simple FOIA requests. The attorneys representing the school also attached an over one thousand dollar fee to the request, once again making the path to transparency more difficult for members of the public. GNBVT has also spent thousands of dollars to fight our access to those school records:

Just last week, we reached out to the Massachusetts State Police to connect with Trooper Robert Twitchell, who was the lead investigator on this case. We were informed that Twitchell had been reassigned and when asked who was lead on this case, we were told they did not have that information available. We were also told this was still an open investigation, something that police commonly use to keep information away from the media and the public.

Fall River Reporter has reached out to the Bristol County District Attorney’s offices more than a half a dozen times since January about this case and have only been told that there were no updates.

After we published our story last week about Pothier’s missing phone, we reached out again and were told that they had nothing new and that they were “hoping to close it out soon.” When told that the family of Pothier said they never got his phone back, Greg Milliote, Director of Communications for the Bristol County DA’s office said he could not comment on active investigations.

When asked about the length of time this case has taken and the family’s quest for answers, Milliote shared:

“All investigations are different. It is impossible to put a timeline on how long an investigation may take to complete, especially when it includes both a State Police Accident Reconstruction and forensic evidence which needs to be tested by the state lab.”

Meanwhile, the family still wants answers, and justice for Jacob.