The Fence - Dick Lehr [98]
Together, Peabody and Farrahar began scheduling the interviews in the case officially known as “ACD Case 95–12: Sergeant Michael Cox, Assault and Battery.” Farrahar typed up a list of nineteen questions to serve as a guide. The list began with the basics. “State your name, rank and ID number.” It ended with the heart of the matter: “Did you see any person assault Michael Cox?” They decided to ask key officers to draw by hand a diagram of the cul-de-sac at Woodruff Way, marking the locations of cruisers and officers, an exercise that resulted in a collection of wildly different pictures. For their use, Farrahar prepared a rough drawing of Woodruff Way—a diagram he then taped to a piece of shirt cardboard from the cleaner’s—so they could position the cruisers and people based on evidence they developed during the course of the investigation.
Unlike the Internal Affairs Division, the BPD Anti-Corruption Unit was housed “off campus,” or away from police headquarters on Berkeley Street in the Back Bay. Just recently, the unit had moved into new offices in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood. For much of the 1800s and into the 1900s, the area was a vibrant shipping and industrial center, bustling with ships, warehouses, and brick and granite factories. More recently, Fort Point Channel had become an afterthought, known for its funky studios and small start-up businesses, as artists and entrepreneurs took advantage of the rundown warehouses and cheap rents. But change was afoot again. Since it bordered the financial district, developers increasingly had their eye on the neighborhood’s potential. It was officially an area “in transition” when Farrahar set up shop on the fifth floor of a red-brick building on Congress Street. The offices, freshly painted and newly carpeted in a speckled gray-blue pattern, were in the building’s rear. The idea behind having such a nondescript location was to provide some privacy, so that police officers summoned to meet with investigators could come and go without fanfare.
Both Peabody and Farrahar joined the investigation well aware of the simmering bad blood between the DA’s office and many rank-and-file cops over Ralph Martin’s track record of going after cops. Peabody wasn’t going to let politics affect his work. Indeed, Martin had told him as much. “Ralph said, ‘Just do it.’” But that didn’t mean Peabody had no appreciation for the pressures at play. He was clear-eyed. “You’ve got to win these.” Losing a corruption case against a cop, he said, “would be devastating.”
Peabody’s first interview was with Mike Cox. The session on May 11 fell a week after Mike was diagnosed by his psychiatrist with depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome. Once again, Mike shared what he remembered about Woodruff Way. Peabody, Farrahar, and a third prosecutor listened quietly, occasionally asking questions. They had him look at some photographs of Dave Williams’s cruiser. Taken by a police photographer to document the cruiser’s damage, the photos also showed the rear trunk streaked with Mike’s blood. Mike talked about Ian Daley nearly arresting him. When they were done, Peabody was struck by how “mild mannered” Mike was. He also sensed Mike’s despair. “He’s an island unto himself at this point.” The second prosecutor scribbled notes as Mike covered a span from when he joined the police department to his treatment in the hospital emergency room. On the last of seven pages the prosecutor highlighted two names: “Bergio,” which was spelled incorrectly, and “Dave Williams.”
Peabody wished Mike could have given them more. In the ideal case, Mike would have been able to tell him the identity of the beaters. “He couldn’t pin the tail on the donkey,” Peabody said later. “He just couldn’t.” But Peabody was satisfied Mike had done the best he could, taking his injuries into account, and he launched his investigation feeling confident. He would proceed methodically with the grand jury, working out from the victim and moving from car to car and from cop to cop. “You investigate…you explore, you probe.” He was in