Questions have swirled over the city of Newbury, Massachusetts, since rumors started circulating final spring in regards to the bond between a police officer and a young person.
Practically a yr later, the city’s police division and college district solely just lately notified mother and father of a state of affairs that resulted within the resignation of John Lucey III, the longtime faculty useful resource officer at Triton Regional Excessive Faculty.
Lucey had been the varsity district’s useful resource officer since 2011, so when the 2024-2025 faculty yr started, mother and father had been shocked to see he was not strolling the halls.
“I used to be informed that Newbury police are investigating it. They can not remark,” stated a Triton Regional Excessive Faculty dad or mum who agreed to talk with the NBC10 Boston Investigators on the situation of anonymity.
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The dad or mum stated months handed with none solutions.
“It is dragging on and on, and no info from the varsity district or the police division,” they stated.
Lucey had been on paid administrative go away since Might.
The choice to tug him from the varsity was made by Newbury Police Chief Patricia Fisher after she stated the 36-year-old officer knowledgeable her that he started relationship a former Triton Regional Excessive Faculty pupil inside a month of her commencement and 18th birthday in 2023.
By the point he disclosed the connection, that they had been relationship for almost 10 months.
Fisher notified the district superintendent, Brian Overlook, and instantly introduced in an out of doors legal professional to conduct an investigation.
The NBC10 Boston Investigators obtained a number of paperwork from the inner investigation and police division. They present that on Might 7, 2024, Lucey informed the chief he met the lady in the summertime of 2023, after they each participated in an alumni theatre manufacturing of “Legally Blonde.”
Throughout that very same dialog, Lucey reportedly revealed a deeper historical past, and informed Fisher the pair had identified one another since she was a pupil at Triton Regional Excessive Faculty, the place Lucey was the SRO.
Lucey would ultimately inform the unbiased investigator that he met the lady when she was in eighth grade at Triton Center Faculty. On the time, he was co-directing a faculty play the lady was collaborating in.
In response to the paperwork, Lucey informed the investigator he grew to become “near the children” throughout this time.
He described his relationship with them as being “a part of like a secret membership.”
Lucey additionally informed the investigator he interacted with the lady outdoors of faculty, connecting along with her through Fb whereas she was within the eighth grade.
Because the lady entered highschool, the investigation revealed their interactions grew extra frequent. Paperwork present the lady sought Lucey’s counsel on quite a few events.
A search of Lucey’s faculty e-mail account uncovered a number of emails between him and the lady’s mom going again to her freshman yr.
The investigation additionally found textual content messages between Lucey and a number of Triton college students, together with the lady.
The investigator stated these texts present Lucey actively sought to hang around with a number of highschool women off faculty grounds.
In response to the investigation, Lucey stated the lady was “simply one other pupil” and he had no romantic, private, friendship or different sort of relationship along with her whereas she was in class.
The investigation discovered inadequate credible proof to conclude issues turned romantic — and probably legal whereas she was nonetheless a minor — but it surely concluded Lucey repeatedly lied about his relationship with the lady and failed to keep up skilled boundaries with a pupil “he knew idolized him and was particularly susceptible … setting the stage for him to pursue a relationship along with her shortly after she turned 18 and graduated.”
Information present that two months after the pair started relationship, Lucey’s personal colleagues started to query the connection.
Two of his fellow officers stated they noticed the pair in public along with Lucey’s youngsters.
Fisher stated she noticed them collectively a number of days later. Noting the lady’s younger look, she requested Lucey whether or not they had been relationship.
Lucey stated no.
“Whenever you begin studying by way of all of the studies, it simply turns into sickening and disgusting,” the dad or mum stated.
Finally, there weren’t ample grounds to maintain an allegation of grooming. The Essex County District Lawyer’s Workplace additionally reviewed the incident and located no legal guidelines had been damaged.
However the investigator concludes her report saying Lucey’s actions “might extra seemingly than not create the general public notion that Lucey had in some way ‘groomed’ a troubled pupil and brought benefit of the belief he had constructed along with her as soon as she reached the age of consent and graduated.”
A number of makes an attempt to succeed in Lucey for remark had been unsuccessful.
A search of his pc revealed a draft memo he wrote, however by no means despatched, earlier than he disclosed the connection to Fisher defending his actions.
“I’ve served the Triton neighborhood for 12-and-a-half years with honor, integrity, and respect. And I plan to proceed to serve that manner for years to return. I’m pleased with the work I’ve accomplished and the repute I keep. And I refuse to permit misrepresentation of my private life sully that repute I’ve constructed,” Lucey wrote. “Nevertheless, I perceive that notion is actuality and that rumors and gossip usually win the day. I perceive that though I’ve been, to the very best of my means, truthful and clear within the writing of this letter, you will need to depend on your religion in my character to simply accept it. I additionally perceive that those that select to talk negatively of me – the cynics and rumor-mongers – won’t ever settle for the truths outlined on this letter. So, with that, I settle for that – maybe I’m now not an appropriate candidate for the SRO place. I’m certified for the place, I excel on the place, and I’ve deep ardour for the place. Finally, all of that solely issues if I’m accepted for the place.”
Lucey informed the investigator he understood why some folks would view the connection as problematic — not solely as a result of circumstances surrounding it, but in addition as a result of he had accomplished this earlier than.
Paperwork from the police division present that Lucey started relationship his now ex-wife and mom of his youngsters shortly after she graduated from Triton Regional Excessive Faculty in 2012.
Lucey initially paused the connection on the behest of his father, former Newbury Police Chief John Lucey, however the two rekindled issues a yr later.
They might ultimately marry and have two youngsters earlier than they separated, proper across the time he started relationship the 2023 graduate.
Lucey remained intent on persevering with the connection after disclosing it to Fisher.
In response to the paperwork, he informed the investigator, “All I can say is, ‘It is lower than me how that is pushed out, perceived or placed on show.’ I’ve tried to maintain my private life private however apparently that’s not the place I am at proper now.”
Lucey resigned from the Newbury Police Division on Oct. 8, 2024, earlier than the Newbury Choose Board might determine whether or not to fireside him.
4 months later, the neighborhood is simply now coming to grips with the complete scope of the state of affairs, and plenty of mother and father have taken to social media to specific outrage over how the varsity district and police division have dealt with the state of affairs. A few of them have posted feedback saying they had been all the time suspicious of Lucey.
“Why not flip it over to the state police and allow them to take over?” the involved dad or mum stated. “There’s allegations she thinks he could have been grooming.”
Neither the varsity district nor police division would agree to sit down for an on-camera interview.
The police division solely acknowledged the gravity of the state of affairs when the NBC10 Boston Investigators started asking questions in January.
In a press release written in response to our open information request, Fisher stated, “Public belief and honesty are, and have all the time been, core values of the Newbury Police Division. I hope the Division’s swift actions in addressing these issues and our choice to assign an unbiased investigator, display to the neighborhood our adherence to those values.”
Regardless of writing a letter to Fisher in September of 2024, supporting her choice to tug Lucey from the varsity, Overlook — who’s been with the district since Lucey has been the SRO — solely issued his first public assertion on Feb. 7.
Learn Overlook’s letter to Fisher:
Learn the Triton Regional Faculty District’s public assertion:
Within the assertion, he stated, “I’m unwavering in my dedication to make sure that all stakeholders welcomed into our faculties adhere to our expectation that we prioritize the bodily and social-emotional well-being of our college students and employees, and that we accomplish that in a fashion that helps public belief.”
For some mother and father, that belief has been damaged.
“Individuals which are supposed to guard our kids … are simply pushing it underneath the rug and hiding it, in my view, from the general public,” the dad or mum stated.
Fisher stated the division is altering its procedures for choosing and monitoring officers assigned to varsities.
The POST Fee has but to make its willpower on whether or not to decertify Lucey as a police officer.
Learn the Newbury Police Division’s report back to the POST Fee:
Learn the report from the unbiased investigation:
