Remember the false charges of racism against the Duke LaCrosse team? A similar story is catching fire in Lunenburg, MA. It seems that a mother spray painted her own house with racist graffiti, presumably to create sympathy for her dark skinned son. The result was a knee-jerk reaction in the town, to make the (mostly white) high school football team forfeit the rest of their season. ~ TD
bostonherald.com
Photo by: Kelvin Ma – FALSE PRETENSES: Andrea Brazier gets a hug from Deborah Jackson at a Nov. 18 vigil in support of Isaac Phillips, Brazier’s son and Jackson’s great nephew, at the gazebo on Lunenburg town common.
Lunenburg cops: Mom misled investigators in racial slur probe
By: John Zaremba
The mother of a former Lunenburg High football player who quit the team after a racial slur was spray-painted on the foundation of the family’s home lied to investigators and stopped cooperating with the probe when asked to make a formal written statement, police said in court papers unsealed today.
The papers, written in support of yesterday’s search warrant at the home of 13-year-old Isaac Phillips and his family, said cops believe Phillips’s mother, Andrea Brazier, “made false statements misleading investigators” and “is in possession of any and all instruments pertaining to the crime of defacing property” being kept at their Chase Street home.
Cops revealed in the search warrant that they were looking for items used to deface property and “any and all paperwork pertaining to the handwriting of Andrea Brazier.”
Investigators seized two cans of spray paint from the home, court papers say, along with one live round of 12-gauge ammunition and four live rounds of 20-gauge ammunition.
The search marked a stunning turn in the weeks-long probe of the graffiti, first reported to cops by Brazier on Nov. 15. The incident led Isaac to quit the football team and transfer to a Leominster school, sparked a candlelight vigil in support of the boy, cast suspicion on his teammates and prompted the school to forfeit the rest of the team’s season. Cops announced this week they had no evidence linking the team to the crime.
No one has been charged. No one answered the door today at the family’s Lunenburg home.
Lunenburg Police Detective Jeffrey Thibodeau writes that Brazier changed her story about when her 6-year-old daughter saw a suspicious person outside the house, first saying it was Nov. 14, then saying in a separate interview it was Nov. 4. Brazier told cops in both interviews that the little girl had spotted someone wearing “a feather head dress” and said in the first interview “that she was not sure if her daughter was making this up or not.”
Brazier also blew off an appointment with investigators on Nov. 22, where she was to make a written statement. Brazier called police that night “and stated she was busy running errands for a birthday party.”
When she met with cops the next day — including an FBI agent and polygrapher — Brazier “started the conversation by saying she was done with the whole incident,” the court papers state.
“Andrea stated she had painted over the graffiti and that she wanted nothing further to do with the investigation,” Thibodeau wrote in his affidavit.
Cops told her they would continue “until we uncovered the truth,” the affidavit says.
“Andrea was told by (an) FBI agent that she wanted the investigation to stop because she was the one who spray painted the graffiti on her house and Andrea stated ‘OK,’” the affidavit says.
Brazier, asked by investigators whether Isaac or her husband, Anthony Phillips, spray-painted the slur, said they had not, according to the affidavit. She then left the police station crying, the papers state.
The affidavit also says Brazier and Anthony Phillips refused cops’ offer to remove the graffiti with a specially designed machine on Nov. 17. The next day, cops returned to the house with an FBI agent to look over the graffiti and found two burnt aerosol cans in an outdoor fire pit, the affidavit says.
Investigators asked Anthony Phillips about the cans and said he gave three different explanations: first that they were spray paint cans he used while renovating their living room, then that he used them on a construction job, and finally that they were flex-seal cans he used while fixing gutters.
Read this story at: bostonherald.com
Ever feel the need to get something you want from the government? No problem! Just fabricate charges of racism against some innocent person. ~ TD
