One of the best descriptions so far of Martha Coakley: authoritarian.
Her handling of both the notorious Tooky Amirault case and her comments about the lesser-known Jason R. Beatrice matter pretty much proves the point.
Jason Beatrice’s 4 year old son was molested by a 71 year old Guatemalan janitor in a public restroom in a Bristol County Market Basket.
Beatrice slugged the janitor and both were arrested.
Martha Coakley’s office wasn’t directly involved, since the case was handled by the Bristol County DA.
She did defend the father’s arrest, though, saying that her office didn’t approve of do-it-yourselfery: “We can’t have people taking the law into their own hands. The father should have waited for the police.”
And I suppose allowed the perp to continue to manhandle his son until the cops sauntered in?
The janitor was released on personal recognizance and subsequently skipped the country, returning to Guatemala. At that point, charges were dropped against Beatrice because there was no victim.
Read about it here.