In short, Lawrence will be involved in selecting a new chief of police as well as a new school superintendent. This brings us memories of what were similar selections during the years 1999 and 2000. We refer to the selections of John Romero as Chief of Police in 1999 and Wilfredo Laboy in 2000. Both, during the administration of Mayor Patricia Dowling (1998 -2001).
We remember the appearances before the City Council of Lawrence, once Romero was selected as one of the finalists for the position, and the presentations he made about his experience after two decades in the New York City Police Department and credited himself with the elimination of graffiti on subways trains of the city.
Romero was selected Lawrence Police Chief for the enjoyment of the citizenry, especially Spanish-speaking. At last, we have a Hispanic police chief! many of them said. Soon Lawrence was filled with graffiti, to the point that DPW was in need of acquiring special equipment to eliminate it.
Another of Romero’s successes was to create a force to combat domestic violence, gangs and insurance fraud, which was enriching more than a dozen chiropractors who, for the time being, had opened several offices in Lawrence to treat people injured in car accidents. While accidents continued to increase, citizens complained about the high cost of auto insurance.
Months after this force was created, a grandmother was killed in one of those ‘accidents’ and it could be proven that days before, she had been recruiting volunteers at the Senior Center to ride with her in the car, which was going to crash and they would receive a certain amount of money. It required the loss of a life for the car insurance in Lawrence to stabilize; it was not by the force created by Romero.
On September 12, 2012, a car hit an electric pole just in front of our house. It took us 45 days to get the police report from Lawrence and two months to gather all the necessary information that appears in an article entitled ‘Anatomy of a Cover-up’. We recommend you read it. You can find it in the edition of Rumbo 396, dated November 8, 2012.
Luckily the driver was unharmed and was taken home by the patrolman who responded to the accident. We ended up being the ones interrogated by Lawrence Police per Romero’s orders. He was only interested in knowing who told us that the driver involved in the accident had been seen drinking at a popular bar in the city.
Then, Laboy. On July 17, 2000, he was approved 6-1 by the School Committee, despite not having a background in secondary education. He, as Romero, came from New York, where he served as assistant superintendent in Brooklyn, becoming the first Latino School Superintendent in Lawrence, to the delight of the Latino population. We finally have a Latino School Superintendent! again was heard.
Laboy began with a 3-month contract and a salary of $130,000.00 and the condition that he should reside in Lawrence. In an interview we did, he confessed that Lawrence did not have a house for a man of his stature, so he decided to buy one in neighboring Methuen for $430,000.
A residence of that sort needs maintenance and to get it done, Laboy used school department personnel. He also used the technical staff for different installations, according to our sources of information.
On October 15, 2004, Lawrence High School was re-accredited by the state, which raised Laboy’s credibility with the public, after it was reported that he had failed a basic literacy test 3 times, although many believe that he had help the fourth time he tried and passed.
For reasons of space, we did not report all the complaints that Rumbo brought to the public domain about the abuses committed by Laboy through the years. Even the Teachers Union took a vote of no confidence against him. Many in the community, especially Puerto Ricans, accused us of being anti Puerto Ricans.
In April 2010, Laboy was dismissed by the School Committee after being indicted on charges of fraud and embezzlement including the use of employees and resources of the School Department. Laboy was tried and sentenced to serve 90 days in a house of corrections followed by one year of house arrest and 600 hours of community work.
We hope that those we offended have forgiven us. It was nothing personal; we only reported the facts and hope that those in charge of selecting the new Chief of Police and Superintendent of Schools have in mind what the promises of the applicants can become.
