Prosecutor tapped to fix crime lab

Big Dig investigator is hired by governor
By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff July 28, 2007

A senior prosecutor working on the attorney general's investigation into a fatal ceiling collapse in a Big Dig tunnel has been hired by the Patrick administration to fix the troubled state medical examiner's office and the State Police crime lab.

John Grossman, 40, deputy chief of Attorney General Martha Coakley's Criminal Division, will become the state's top forensics official, replacing LaDonna Hatton, who resigned as undersecretary of public safety last month after a series of problems surfaced at the crime lab and the medical examiner's office.

Grossman, who also prosecuted two men accused of mounting the guerrilla marketing campaign that disrupted the city in January, said he is not sure when he will start his new job, but expects the Big Dig investigation to wrap up soon. Coakley is considering whether to bring manslaughter charges against any of the companies who built the tunnel or oversaw construction.

"The opportunity came up, and it's an opportunity I'm honored and humbled to be given," said Grossman, who has been working on the Big Dig case full time for the past year. "I'm confident that whatever happens here, I'm part of a great team working on the Big Dig. Whether I'm here or not is not going to really affect anything."

Grossman, of Newton, was hired 12 years ago by Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and previously served as chief of the Corruption, Fraud, and Computer Crime Division. He has prosecuted a range of defendants, including six men who distributed child pornography over the Internet and two California women who bought $120,000 worth of diamonds and fancy clothes with a stolen credit card.

In his new job, Grossman will implement changes called for in a recently released consultant's report that found significant management problems at the crime lab and identified 16,000 cases in which evidence, some dating as far back as the 1980s, was never tested.

The study by Vance, a consulting firm with offices in Braintree, was ordered after problems surfaced with the processing of DNA test results at the lab. Other investigations by the FBI and the state inspector general's office followed and are still pending. Coakley, a former district attorney, and several of her former colleagues have challenged the study's findings.

The medical examiner's office came under scrutiny in March, when unclaimed bodies began to pile up at its overcrowded South End headquarters and in a refrigerated truck parked behind the facility.

In March, Carl Selavka, the director of the crime lab since 1998, was forced to resign; in May the chief medical examiner, Dr. Mark Flomenbaum, was placed on administrative leave after the body of a Cape Cod man was buried in the wrong grave after an autopsy. Findings of a separate Vance report on the medical examiners' office has not yet been released.

Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke said choosing Grossman for the $125,000-a-year position was very simple.

"We have a couple of agencies in crisis," said Burke. "When you go about looking for people with experience in law enforcement and an understanding of the agencies that fall under forensic services and have experience managing people, that's a small universe. . . . John stood out."

Burke also cited Grossman's expertise in cybercrime and computer forensics, which he said "will bring a very needed asset to this agency."

"A lot of what will drive our future will be technology-based," Burke said.

Grossman's first assignment, Burke said, will be to examine the agencies in immediate crisis and craft a restructuring plan.

He will not begin until the Big Dig probe is over, Burke said. "The investigation would naturally take precedence over anything we're involved in at the moment," said Burke. "At such time as he and the attorney general agree his work is complete, we'll gladly welcome him into the fold."

Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr., who supervised Grossman in the attorney general's office, said he is well-qualified to correct "problems that have unfortunately persisted for some time."

"He's well known and respected amongst State Police and prosecutors and is a very intelligent guy," said Leone, former chief of the attorney general's Criminal Division. "If they get a plan and fund it and commit to it, this is something that can be turned around."

"As DA's we've done the best we could with what we've had," Leone said. "This is an outstanding opportunity to move both the lab and the medical examiner's office forward."