POST FROM POOL BOY 9-20-08
POST # 39
Here is an article published in the Catholic Observer about the private investigator Robert C. Stevens:
Private Investigator Sends Unusual Letter to Diocesan Clergy
By Father Bill Pomerleau
Catholic Observer
May 13, 2005
http://www.iobserve.org/rn0513e.html SPRINGFIELD – A private investigator hired by a Springfield newspaper to investigate the 1972 murder of Daniel Croteau sent unusually worded letters to at least 13 priests of the Diocese of Springfield asking for information.
The letters, dated Easter Sunday, March 23, seem to imply that investigator R.C. Stevens could offer confidentiality to informant clergy, and that the former state police officer might know about unfavorable personal histories of the priests.
“Please understand that my inquiries do not necessarily reflect you, your past or your current circumstances. However, through the course of our investigation, unusual circumstances have emerged surrounding groups of individuals,” the letters said.
Stevens, a retired state police officer once attached to the Northwest District Attorney’s office in Northampton, was hired by The Republican newspaper last August to investigate the 1972 unsolved murder of Daniel Croteau.
Alluding to colleagues at his Hadley-based detective agency, Psychologically Supported Intervention & Investigation, he wrote:“As private investigators, our ability to pose questions in confidence proves advantageous should individuals feel apprehensive with regard to the possibility of public misperceptions.”
Stevens continued,“It is of the utmost importance that discretion is maintained and that I speak with you as soon as possible with respect to circumstances surrounding this individual or certain individuals as a means to resolve concerns which we have in relations to aspects of our investigation.”
A priest who provided a copy of the letter he received to The Catholic Observer noted that the investigator had claimed that “discrete attempts to contact you by telephone have been met with great difficulty.”
“I know for a fact that he never tried to telephone me,” said the priest, who was ordained several years after the murder.
“He seems to have sent the letter to priests he thought might have known (former priest Richard) Lavigne, or who are in parishes where Lavigne had served,” said John Egan, a Springfield attorney who met with Stevens last month.
Troubled and/or confused clergy, concerned about how they should respond, who received the letter contacted Egan, other attorneys and diocesan officials.
Egan said he met with Stevens “as a courtesy” on behalf of the priests and not in his role as attorney for the diocese. He said that Stevens showed him a list of the priests whom he had contacted.
Stevens told the Observer May 9 that he did place phone calls to priests both before and after mailing his letter. He said that while he had received “quite a bit of resistance,” a few priests have been “candid” in talking to him.
Asked what criteria he used to contact priests, he said simply,“what we were hoping to do was to clear up some loose ends” in his investigation.
Exceprted from this link:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/200 ...
Is Stevens still investigating the Maura Murray disappearance? Stevens does know and presumably works for the Amherst law firm of Allison, Angier. Stevens and Angier worked together when Stevens was a state police detective and Angier was an assistant DA in the Northwest DA's office.
Attorney Donald Allison has represented Richard Johnson and Birthright of Amherst Area, Inc. Johnson is an officer in Birthright. Allison has also represented Kevin Oakes and John Atherly, who work for Microsoft Co-founder Paul Allen.
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