Metro
THE BOSTON GLOBE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/METROB
LEUNG:Gleaning lessons
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City Hall under siege
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Business
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By Matt Stout
and Yvonne Abraham
GLOBE STAFF
Bryon Hefner, who multiple
men said sexually assaulted them
after he gained access to the high-
est echelon of Beacon Hill power,
pleaded guilty Tuesday to a reduced
set of charges, providing a coda to a
case that upended Massachusetts
politics and the career of Hefner’s
husband, former Senate president
Stanley C. Rosenberg.
Once facing a nine-count indict-
ment, Hefner, 32, will avoid imme-
diate jail time but must register as a
sex offender after pleading guilty in
Suffolk Superior Court to one count
each of indecent assault and bat-
tery, disseminating a nude photo,
and a misdemeanor charge of as-
sault and battery.
Attorney General Maura Healey,
whose office prosecuted the closely
watched case, agreed to dismiss a
series of other charges one day be-
fore jury selection had been sched-
uled to begin.
The plea deal came nearly two
years after allegations against Hef-
ner first exploded into public view
in the Globe, quickly drawing the
attention of authorities and, in the
months that followed, forcing a
reckoning on Beacon Hill around
how officials handle complaints of
sexual harassment.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge
Mary K. Ames, in accepting prose-
cutors’ recommendation, sen-
tenced Hefner to three years of pro-
bation and a suspended one-year
jail sentence, and ordered Hefner
to remain drug and alcohol free,
among other conditions.
“When we see sexual assaults,
particularly sexual assaults of this
nature, they are about exerting
power over the victim and power
over any other members of the
community who may come to know
about the assaults,” Ames said.
She added that she took into ac-
count that Hefner has “made
strides” in recent years to get treat-
ment for alcohol abuse and mental
health problems.
HEFNER,PageBE
ighteen years later, questions continue to haunt David T. Gay.
“I still have a hard time trying to figure out how the people on that
plane felt,” the Taunton attorney said in a phone interview Tuesday.
“How long before the crash did they actually realize what was hap-
pening?”
His brother, Raytheon Co. executive Peter A. Gay, was among 92
people aboard American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11, 2001, when it
crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
About 17 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175, also out of Logan Airport, struck
the South Tower. A third plane struck the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed into a Pennsyl-
vania field after passengers fought back against hijackers. More than 200 victims of the
attacks had ties to Massachusetts. Last year, David Gay was master of ceremonies for the
Massachusetts 9/11 Fund’s annual Sept. 11 commemoration at the State House, but this
year he plans to stay closer to home and attend Taunton’s remembrance with family.MEMORIAL,PageB‘WE’LLALWAYSMISSHIM’
As the
memory of
that horrific
day fades a
bit for some,
victims’
relatives find
ways to cope,
remember
Hefner
pleads
guiltyto
3counts
Closes case that
upset state politics
DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFFSwampscott’s Anne Potts sought the name of her friend, Neilie Anne Heffernan, at the Garden of Remembrance 9/11 Memorial Tuesday.
By Tim Logan
and Milton J. Valencia
GLOBE STAFF
A bribery scandal may be hanging
over Boston’s Zoning Board of Appeal,
but you wouldn’t have known it at its
regular biweekly meeting Tuesday
Property owners and their archi-
tects shuffled to the front of a dreary,
crowded conference room in City Hall
to get permission for their roof-decks
and condo projects. Neighbors waited
to comment, while lawyers and city
staffers mingled in the hallway out-
side.
But there were signs this was no
ordinary day at the board. It was the
first meeting since federal prosecu-
tors disclosed that longtime city em-
ployee John Lynch took a $50,
bribe to influence a vote on a project
in South Boston in 2017. And this onedrew crews from local television news
stations there; at one point, the
board’s chairwoman, Christine Arau-
jo, appeared taken aback when one
television reporter placed a micro-
phone in front of her.
“Did you want this here?” she
asked the reporter. He did.
The zoning board meets every oth-er Tuesday, and its agenda is typically
lengthy, often taking half a day to get
through. But last week City Councilor
Michelle Wu had floated the idea of
postponing Tuesday’s meeting until
the Walsh administration had more
information about the incident.
But since then, Mayor Martin J.
Walsh tapped former federal prosecu-
tor Brian Kelly to interview board
members about the episode, accepted
the resignation of one member —
ZONINGBOARD,PageBForcityzoningboard,it’sbusinessasusual
In wake of bribery scandal and calls to
change the way it operates, panel plows on
BY JEREMY C. FOX|GLOBE STAFF9/11 — EIGHTEEN YEARS LATER
By Deirdre Fernandes
GLOBE STAFF
A former MIT Media Lab fund-rais-
er who has become a central figure in
the unfolding scandal over the re-
search center’s extensive ties to Jeffrey
Epstein said Tuesday that he was fol-
lowing the university’s practices in ac-
cepting donations from the disgraced
financier.
Peter Cohen, a former director of
development and strategy, said in a
statement that when he joined the Me-
dia Lab in 2014, it already had estab-
lished procedures for handling Ep-
stein’s contributions.
Cohen said he understood that
those policies were “authorized by and
implemented with the full knowledge
of MIT central administration.”
According to e-mails released by a
whistle-blower, Cohen acted as an in-
termediary between the Media Lab
and its former director, Joi Ito, and the
university’s central administration on
donor issues.
Cohen also worked with Ito on
MIT,PageBEx-MITfund-raisersays
policyguidedEpsteingifts
By Danny McDonald
GLOBE STAFF
and Sarah Wu
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
FALL RIVER — The City Council
voted 8 to 1 Tuesday night to tempo-
rarily relieve besieged Mayor Jasiel
F. Correia II of his duties while he
faces federal corruption and fraud
charges. The council also passed a
motion that Correia should vacate
his office by 5 p.m. Friday.
Cliff Ponte, the council president,
said Tuesday’s decision is “what’sbest for Fall River.”
“The mayor needs to step up and
leave,” he said.
Ponte had indicated in a Monday
letter that he would call for a vote of
the council Tuesday night that
would relieve Correia of his duties if
seven councilors supported it.
An acting mayor would stand in
his place “until such a time that the
charges against you are withdrawn.”
However, such a move could trig-
ger a legal challenge.
FALLRIVER,PageBCityCouncil:Mayormustleave
But Fall River vote’s legality is questioned
Mayor Jasiel F. Correia II faces
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