The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office has attributed anonymous letters claiming a judge and prosecutor had a romantic relationship to a vindictive harassment campaign by a woman with “personal animus” towards members of the office.
The letters caused a major stir in the New Bedford District Court when they began to circulate in September, reopening a pair of criminal cases and triggering a review of hundreds more by the state’s public defender agency. The judge named in the anonymous letters, Douglas Darnbrough, resigned in November, citing health concerns.
The D.A.’s office linked the letters to an unnamed “harasser” in a court filing on Monday, countering claims made in an appeal by a convicted man who says his trial was “fatally compromised” by the alleged relationship between Darnbrough and the prosecutor.
“Based on the information available, the District Attorney’s Office concluded that this new round of anonymous letters was a continuation of this harassment campaign against our employee,” First Assistant District Attorney Patrick Bomberg said in Monday’s filing.
Bomberg said the “suspected harasser” went as far as confronting the accused prosecutor in person, where she allegedly said she wanted to “ruin” the prosecutor’s reputation before she even got one. Bomberg, who provided no further details about a possible motive, said the matter is under criminal investigation.
The D.A.’s office made these disclosures in response to a judge’s order to release information about an internal investigation a prosecutor referenced in court earlier this month, during a hearing for the appeal filed by Gerson Pascual-Santana, who is currently serving a 2 ½ year jail sentence for indecent assault of a child. On January 5, Assistant District Attorney Gillian Kirsch said it was her “understanding” that an internal investigation by her office found no evidence of a relationship between Darnbrough and the prosecutor that tried the case against Pascual-Santana.
At the time, Kirch also sought to block a request from Pascual-Santana’s attorney for any statements Darnbrough and the prosecutor might have made to investigators from the Massachusetts Trial Court, the administration that manages the New Bedford District Court where Darnbrough previously served as the presiding judge.
“He’s concluding or inferring that the Trial Court received a note prompting this investigation into Judge Darnbrough,” Kirsch said about Pascual Santana’s attorney during a hearing on January 5.
“I would suggest that the factual circumstances here don’t support those inferences,” Kirsch said.
Bomberg, one of Kirsch’s superiors in the Bristol County D.A.’s Office, clarified in Monday’s court filing that their office has not conducted an internal investigation. Instead, Bomberg said the D.A.’s office cooperated with an investigation led by the Massachusetts Trial Court.
“After being contacted by the Deputy Court Administrator, the District Attorney’s Office informed the Trial Court of this anonymous harassment campaign,” Bomberg said in the filing. “In the presence of District Attorney’s office employees, Trial Court investigators interviewed our employee. Consistent with information already known to the District Attorney’s Office, our employee denied any relationship with the judge.”
The Trial Court investigation, Bomberg said, ultimately “found no evidence of a relationship between our employee and the judge.” The Massachusetts Trial Court declined to comment on the results of the investigation when contacted by The Public’s Radio.
More records revealing the investigation’s scope and findings could still be released as litigation continues this winter. Pascual-Santana’s attorney, James McKenna, has until February 12 to respond to the D.A.’s latest filing.
