Hodgson, a Republican who has managed Bristol County’s jails since 1997, referenced a ruling issued this week by Massachusetts’ Department of Labor Relations.
A hearing officer found Heroux, in his current duties as the mayor of Attleboro, the county’s fourth largest city, violated state law by making “coercive comments” to a firefighter seeking compensation from the city for his hospitalization from COVID. Heroux had asked the firefighter to prove that he contracted coronavirus while on duty.
The hearing officer wrote that Heroux eventually called the firefighter a “liar” and suggested in a Facebook message to the firefighter’s wife that he could have been fired for other alleged offenses in the past.
“He’s gone after the spouse of a firefighter,” Hodgson said towards the beginning of the debate, which was hosted by WPRI on Friday. “When she asked him to stop contacting her, he continued.”
Heroux said he is appealing the Department of Labor Relations’ ruling.
“The wife of this firefighter actually reached out to me first on my Facebook page and I responded, at first not knowing she was the wife of a firefighter,” Heroux said. “I was articulating that I was giving them the benefit of the doubt. I’m not trying to stick to them, and that’s what I was trying to explain.”
Heroux countered by saying Hodgson faced 25 unfair labor complaints from his staff in his first two years on the job, which Hodgson attributed to efforts to reform an insubordinate group of staff members he inherited from the previous sheriff.
Heroux has also announced that Hodgson is under investigation by the State Ethics Commission for using taxpayer-funded resources provided by the sheriff’s office on the campaign trail. Heroux told the local radio station WBSM that he filed the complaint after one of his campaign volunteers filmed Hodgson leaving a debate WBSM hosted earlier this month in a government-owned car.
Heroux trotted out an additional set of allegations during Friday’s WPRI debate related to an endorsement Hodgson received from the union representing Bristol County’s correctional officers.
“I was just contacted anonymously yesterday by somebody who actually said that he got the support of the union this time because he gave promotions to some of the union stewards,” Heroux claimed. “He was giving out promotions. This could be fact-checked, and I think this is something that should be investigated.”
“An anonymous person told him that, of course,” Hodgson responded. “This is the problem with Mr. Heroux. He goes to anonymous this, anonymous that and listens to these people, and tries to use it to create a narrative and get cheap political points.”
On the subject of endorsements, Heroux took aim at Hodgson for his attempts to take on additional law enforcement duties that exceed the traditional scope of a Massachusetts sheriff’s office.
“The sheriff runs the jail,” Heroux said during Friday’s debate. “The sheriff does have limited law enforcement authority, but not nearly to the crime prevention degree that Sheriff Hodgson likes to talk about. He’s taking credit away from the hard-working police departments throughout the county.”
Heroux suggested that some police departments in the area have bristled under Hodgson’s efforts to expand his influence outside of the Ash Street Jail and the Dartmouth House of Corrections, the two correctional facilities he is charged with managing as the Bristol County Sheriff.
“He does have some endorsements from the police,” Heroux said, “but the majority of the police organizations in Bristol County have not endorsed him. They are staying out of this race.”
Hodgson seized the opportunity to discuss a major influx of campaign spending on Heroux’s behalf from a pair of political action committees based in New York City. Collectively, Everytown for Gun Safety and the Working Families Party spent more than $375,000 this month, according to the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
“Mr. Heroux’s endorsements are not from here,” Hodgson said. “He’s got these activist groups, the defund police groups funded by Bloomberg and George Soros.”
The debate also delved into a longer-standing issue in Bristol County: the jails’ striking record of inmate suicides. Since 2006, more people have killed themselves in Hodgson’s custody than in any other Massachusetts county jail system. These criticisms resurfaced earlier this month after a man killed himself in the Ash Street Jail six minutes after another inmate in the same unit attempted suicide.
Hodgson deflected criticism on the issue by referencing certifications of his mental health protocols by the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare.
Heroux returned to the subject on several occasions to highlight Bristol County’s status as an outlier in jail suicides.
“If you don’t admit there’s a problem, you can’t fix it and you can’t get better,” Heroux said.
Friday’s debate was conducted remotely over Zoom after Heroux announced that he recently tested positive for coronavirus.
Voters have already begun casting ballots in the election by mail and at precincts that facilitate early voting. The election will conclude when the remainder of voters head to the polls on Nov. 8.
Ben Berke is the South Coast Bureau Reporter for The Public’s Radio. He can be reached at bberke@thepublicsradio.org. Follow him on Twitter @BenBerke6.
