WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 The Boston Globe Metro B
He is among many surviving
family members in Massachu-
setts who must decide each
year how to mark an event that
remains with them daily, even
as it recedes into memory for
others.
“It’s been a while now, but it
hasn’t changed much, I guess,”
Gay, 73, said about the loss of
his brother, just 13 months
younger. “It’s pretty much the
same feeling every year, that
you go back and try to remem-
ber how this all happened, and
the magnitude of the events.”
On that clear, cool, night-
marish morning, David Gay
was in his law office, absorbing
new details as they became
available. When he realized
that the first crash could have
been his brother’s plane, he
called Raytheon.
“His secretary said, ‘He was
supposed to be on that plane,
but we don’t know if he was,’ ”
he recalled. “I said, ‘I know my
uMEMORIAL
Continued from Page B
brother. If he was supposed to
be on that plane, he was.’ ”
Christie Coombs, whose
husband Jeff also died on
Flight 11, will spend Wednes-
day observing Sept. 11’s desig-
nation as a National Day of Ser-
vice and Remembrance.
She plans to participate in a
Red Cross blood drive at Fen-
way Park sponsored by the Red
Sox and Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center, and then to
volunteer with the Massachu-
setts Military Heroes Fund to
assemble care packages for ser-
vice members on the Rose Ken-
nedy Greenway.
“Those are the things that
we want people to do [to] re-
member 9/11. It’s turning
something negative into a posi-
tive,” the Abington resident
said.
Christie and Jeff’s three chil-
dren were 13, 11, and 7 when
Flight 11 struck the tower. Now
they are adults who have lived
longer without a father than
with one. But Jeff is alwayswith the Coombses, his widow
said.
“There are still pictures in
our house. We still tell stories... we call them ‘Dad stories,’ ”
Christie Coombs, 58, said.
“Whenever my kids are going
through something where they
need advice, I always ask them,
‘What do you think Dad would
say?’ ”
When their son, Matthew,
was married earlier this year,
she gave him a photograph of
himself as a 1-year-old with his
father, both wearing huge
grins. He kept it in his jacket
pocket during the ceremony.“He’ll be with us always,”
she said of her late husband.
“Time doesn’t change that.
We’ll always miss him, and
he’ll always be close to us... If
he could be here today, hewould be super proud of the
kids, and what they’ve accom-
plished, and how they’ve
grown up to be like him, funny
and kind.”
On Sunday, she will host the
18th Annual Jeff Coombs Me-
morial Road Race, Walk and
Family Day in Abington, which
already has 500 registered par-
ticipants. She plans to end the
event after the 20th race in2021, she said, another ac-
knowledgment that time con-
tinues to pass, regardless of
whether its wounds heal.
Coombs said “it’s human na-
ture” that people go on with
their lives, and that even the
most tragic events grow dis-
tant, but it’s important not to
forget those who were lost.
“We can’t dwell on the past,
but we do want people to re-
member,” she said, “because
something as simple as saying
someone’s name out loud... that means the world, be-
cause it means that people re-
member.”
The Massachusetts 9/
Fund’s annual commemoration
at the State House will begin at
8:30 a.m. with a flag lowering,
moment of silence, and reading
of the names of Massachusetts
residents who were killed.
The event will move into the
House of Representatives
chamber for a 9:30 a.m. obser-
vation and the presentation of
the Madeline Amy Sweeney
Award for Civilian Bravery,
named for a Flight 11 flight at-
tendant from Acton who con-
tacted authorities on the
ground to relay crucial infor-
mation about the plane’s hi-
jackers.
There will be a private re-
ception for the families of those
lost at 11 a.m. and a wreath-
laying ceremony at the Boston
Public Garden at 1 p.m.
The Red Cross blood drive
at Fenway Park runs from 6
a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Massachusetts Military
Heroes Fund will assemble care
packages on the Mothers Walk
of the Rose Kennedy Greenway
from noon to 2:30 p.m.
The Jeff Coombs Memorial
Road Race, Walk, and Family
Day will take place Sunday, be-
ginning at 9 a.m., at the Woods-
dale School in Abington.Jeremy C. Fox can be reached
at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter
@jeremycfox.9/11 victims’ kin find ways to cope, remember loved ones
“Mr. Hefner, if you decide...
to veer from the correct route
in doing all of the things this
court expects you to do, you
will come back before me,”
Ames warned. “And it will not
be a pleasant conversation.”
Several of Hefner’s victims
said Tuesday they were grateful
that Hefner will face real reper-
cussions for his actions, most
notably that he is required to
register as a sex offender.
“The thing I was most con-
cerned about in all of this was
that this not happen again to
anybody else,” one victim told
the Globe. “I was always con-
cerned that he could just walk
away from this and let it fall in-
to the annals of history. And
now it will follow him around
for the rest of his life.”
Anothervictimtoldthe
Globe that Tuesday’s plea
agreement was as “close to jus-
tice as our system allows us to
get.”
“I did not want him to go to
jail, that didn’t seem like justice
to me or public safety to me,” he
said. “But I wanted there to be
consequences, and there are.”
Hefner had faced five charg-
es of indecent assault and bat-
tery after prosecutors said he
groped two men against their
will and forcibly kissed a third.
He was also charged with circu-
lating a nude photo of a fourth
man who never agreed to have
the pictures taken. According
to a civil lawsuit filed by anoth-
er of Hefner’s accusers — and
which has since been dropped
— the fourth man was an elect-
ed official.
As part of the plea deal, Hef-
ner admitted to distributing
the nude photo of the man,
with whom Hefner’s attorney
had said he engaged in “con-
sensual sexual activity” in a
Puerto Rico hotel room in
2013.
Hefner also ultimately ad-
mitted to grabbing one man’s
uHEFNER
Continued from Page B
genitals through his clothes at
Hefner’s Beacon Hill condo in
June 2015, and a second allega-
tion that he “aggressively”
kissed another victim on the
lips without his consent in Au-
gust 2016.
Speaking briefly in court,
Hefner apologized both to the
victims and his family, saying
he was sorry for the pain he
caused. Hefner told Ames he
has undergone treatment, is
currently separated from
Rosenberg, and is working in
the “culinary” industry.
Hefner did not speak to re-
porters as he left the court-
house. But his attorney, TracyA. Miner, sought to draw a dis-
tinction between what her cli-
ent admitted to in court and
what she said was “reported in
the press at the beginning.”
“He has admitted that he
was wrong. I’m not dismissing
the charges. It was a wrong
thing to do,” Miner said. “But
they’re not what the public was
led to believe early on.”
However, two of the victims
who spoke to the Globe in
2017, alleging Hefner assaulted
them, were among those cited
inhiscriminalcase.Andthe
charges brought by prosecutors
mirrored the claims they first
made.Ian Polumbaum, a Suffolk
County prosecutor working un-
der Healey’s office for the case,
said the agreement allows vic-
tims to avoid testifying in what
would have been highly publi-
cized case.
“It’s a very big deal to them
that he steps up and admit the
charges,” said Polumbaum, the
chief of Suffolk’s domestic vio-
lence and sexual assault unit.
Healey and Suffolk District
Attorney Rachael Rollins both
commended the victims for
coming forward.
“We were only able to prose-
cute this defendant because of
the bravery of the survivors,”Healey said in a statement.
The accusations against
Hefner reverberated through
state politics, beginning in No-
vember 2017 when the Globe
detailed allegations from four
men who said Hefner had sexu-
ally assaulted or harassed
them. Within days, Rosenberg
— then Senate president and
consequently one of the state’s
most powerful officials —
stepped down from his leader-
ship post as a Senate commit-
tee investigated his conduct.
Healey and the Suffolk dis-
trict attorney’s office indicted
Hefner in March 2018. Months
later, Rosenberg, a 31-year vet-eran on Beacon Hill, resigned
his seat after the Senate’s Ethics
Committee found that he gave
Hefner unfettered access to his
official e-mail and failed to pro-
tect the Senate and its staff
from a spouse he knew had ha-
rassed them.
Rosenberg has said that he
had not known about any of
Hefner’s alleged sexual as-
saults, and the Senate’s outside
investigator did not find any ev-
idence to contradict that.
Rosenberg, 69, has said that
Hefner’s presence in his life
helped him become the person
he is, supporting him as he beat
back cancer and giving him
strength to disclose that he is
gay.
Reached by text message
Tuesday, Rosenberg declined to
comment.
The current Senate presi-
dent, Karen E. Spilka, said the
chamber was “grateful that this
challenging chapter has come
to a close.”
“Our thoughts today, as al-
ways, are with the victims, their
loved ones, and anyone else
who has experienced pain due
to Mr. Hefner’s criminal acts,”
Spilka said.Matt Stout can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow
him on Twitter @mattpstout.Hefner pleads guilty to 3 counts in Beacon Hill case
Joseph I. Macy, Fall River’s
corporation counsel, has sug-
gested that such a vote would
be not legally binding.
In a Monday letter to the
mayor and council president,
Macy said “There is no explicit
provision in the Charter that
the contemplated vote ‘ipso fac-
to’ relieves they Mayor of his
duties.”
Ponte said that should the
mayor seek an injunction to
prevent his ouster, the council
would retain outside attorneys.
Correia stands accused of ex-
torting marijuana vendors. Spe-
cifically, prosecutors allege the
27-year-old Democrat pres-
sured businesses to pay
$575,000 in cash bribes in ex-
change for city approval.
His arrest on Friday came af-
ter he was arrested in October
and charged with stealing more
than $231,000 from investors
in his tech startup and with fil-
ing false tax returns to hide the
uFALLRIVER
Continued from Page B
scheme.
He has pleaded not guilty in
both cases.
In his letter Monday, Ponte
implored Correia to temporari-
ly step aside and to “do what is
best for Fall River.”
Ponte said that if a depart-
ment head or other city employ-
ee were facing the charges Cor-
reia is, they would be placed on
administrative leave, pending
the outcome of the investiga-
tion.
“The residents of Fall River
deserve to have a government
they can trust,” Ponte said. “Re-
storing that trust needs to be a
top priority.”
Standing outside City Hall
with about two dozen sign-
wielding supporters before the
meeting Tuesday night, Correia
was defiant, saying “The law
does not allow them to do what
they’re trying to do.”
Correia said the recent alle-
gations against him are false.
Some drivers honked their
horns in support, while at leastone motorist drove by and gave
a thumbs-down sign.
“I was here Monday to do
my job,” Correia said. “I was
here Tuesday, and I’ll be here
Wednesday.”
When asked whether he
would attend the council meet-
ing, Correia said, “There’s
enough drama out there. I don’t
needtobeinthere.”
Before the vote, Councilor
Stephen R. Long said that past
and future city contracts and
appointments are “suspect” be-
cause of Correia. “His credibili-
ty is shot,” he said.
Councilor Bradford L. Kilby
said Correia’s ouster was a long
time coming and called his al-
leged criminal activity “brazen.”
“Be a man, step down, work
on your problems,” Kilby said.
Councilor Steven A. Camara,
who cast the sole vote against
relieving Correia of his duties,
suggested the council did not
have the authority to remove an
elected official.
“I will take the uncomfort-able position that it is wrong for
us to do something that is not
within our jurisdiction,” he
said.
Outside City Hall, Susan Ma-
thias, 72, said she came out to
support Correia because he has
revitalized the city.
“This mayor has brought
Fall River back from the brink
of bankruptcy,” she said. “We’ve
got fantastic economic develop-
ment.”
Paul Christy, 72, had a differ-
ent take. He held a sign that
simply read “JAIL.”
“That’s where he belongs,”
he said. “He’s giving the city a
bad name.”
Following his October ar-
rest, Correia dismissed a chorus
of calls for his resignation and
survived an attempted ouster in
March, when he was recalled
and then reelected on the same
ballot.
Correia had swept into office
in 2016, promising fresh energy
for the city, and supporters
praise him for improving parksand reducing fees. But his ac-
complishments have been over-
shadowed by allegations that
he “turned his job into a per-
sonal ATM,” as US Attorney An-
drew Lelling said Friday, when
he charged the mayor with us-
ing middlemen to extract
bribes from marijuana vendors
in exchange for letters support-
ing their businesses.
He was arrested Friday
morning while playing tennis at
a public court in Fall River.
Some of the alleged extor-
tion occurred while he was un-
der federal indictment for alleg-edly stealing more than
$230,000 from investors in his
tech startup, prosecutors said.
Correia began “monetizing
his official position to fund his
lavish lifestyle and mounting le-
gal bills” within months of be-
coming mayor in January 2016,
according to the federal indict-
ment, which charged him with
extortion conspiracy, extortion
aiding and abetting, and brib-
ery.
There is a preliminary city
election next Tuesday. Correia is
running against Paul Coogan
and Erica Scott-Pacheco, both
of whom ran in the March re-
call election. In that contest,
Coogan lost to Correia by fewer
than 250 votes, while Scott-
Pacheco came in last.Michael Levenson of Globe staff
contributed to this report.
Danny McDonald can be
reached at
[email protected].
Follow him on Twitter
@Danny__McDonald.Fall River councilors say embattled mayor must leave
JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF
Bryon Hefner, 32, once facing a nine-count indictment, will avoid immediate jail time but must register as a sex offender.‘Iwasalways
concernedthathe
couldjustwalk
awayfromthis
andletitfallinto
theannalsof
history.Andnow
itwillfollowhim
aroundfortherest
ofhislife.’
one of Hefner’s victims about the
repercussions Hefner will face‘It’sprettymuchthesamefeelingevery
year,thatyougobackandtryto
rememberhowthisallhappened,and
themagnitudeoftheevents.’
DAVID T. GAY,his brother Peter A. Gay, was among 92 people
aboard American Airlines Flight 11‘Iwashere
Mondaytodomy
job. Iwashere
Tuesday,andI’llbe
hereWednesday.’
JASIEL F. CORREIA
II.mayor of Fall River