# Sutter defends new hire



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

DA's investigator was fired by DSS for racist remark 
By JOSEPH R. LaPlante, Standard-Times staff writer

NEW BEDFORD - Newly elected Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter has hired a Fall River city councilor who was fired from her state job 10 years ago for telling an offensive, racist joke. 
Linda Pereira, who is employed by Mr. Sutter as a child abuse investigator, made a derogatory, sexual remark about blacks to a gathering at a political testimonial in 1996 while she was a caseworker for the Department of Social Services. 
Mr. Sutter defended the hiring yesterday. 
"I was aware that Linda told an inappropriate joke, she has apologized many times and she has stood up to face Fall River voters (as a council candidate)," Mr. Sutter said. "She was my choice because I have a lot of confidence in her ability." 
Mrs. Pereira was involved in a second controversy at DSS in January 2006, when the agency investigated her for publicly disclosing confidential information about a foster parent who was accused and later acquitted of raping a foster child. 
DSS officials at the time asserted that Mrs. Pereira, who was quoted at length about the case in an article in the Fall River Herald-News, contended the reporter fabricated the interview. 
Mrs. Pereira, who with her husband was a financial contributor to Mr. Sutter's successful primary campaign against incumbent Paul F. Walsh, told the newspaper Friday that she declined the opportunity to respond. 
"I'd rather have you go through the district attorney," Mrs. Pereira told a reporter. 
Mr. Sutter did not respond to a request by the newspaper for an interview Friday about Mrs. Pereira's comment made through his spokesperson Lisa Rowell on Friday. The newspaper repeated the request yesterday, a day after the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday. Ms. Rowell said Mr. Sutter had received the newspaper's request Friday. 
He returned the telephone call yesterday afternoon. 
Mrs. Pereira was reinstated to her position with DSS in 1998 when a Superior Court judge found the firing violated her right to free speech. The judge reduced Mrs. Pereira's discipline to a one-year suspension. 
In 2000, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found that telling a racist joke about black people at a testimonial is grounds for dismissal. The court determined that the department's interest in protecting its reputation outweighed Mrs. Pereira's rights to free speech. However, Mrs. Pereira was permitted to keep her job at DSS. 
The district attorney employs two child abuse investigators. Their job is to investigate reports of abuse throughout Bristol County in connection with criminal prosecution. The county includes the racially diverse cities of New Bedford and Fall River. 
Mr. Sutter campaigned on a promise of "transparency" in his office's workings and he criticized Mr. Walsh for hiring politically connected persons to his staff. 
Mrs. Pereira made two contributions to the Sutter campaign: $50 on Sept. 5, two weeks before the primary, and $150 on Nov. 20, more than two months after the primary, according to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. Her husband, Louis, contributed $135 to the Sutter campaign in June, according to the office. The new employee and her husband contributed a total of $335 to Mr. Sutter's campaign. 
Only 14 of the 482 contributors to the Sutter campaign sent checks after that date and only two of those were greater than Mrs. Pereira's $150, according to the state campaign finance records. 
Mr. Sutter discounted the relevance of the Pereiras' contributions, asserting: "So did a lot of people. There is nothing wrong with accepting a political contribution." 
When Mr. Sutter was asked about Mrs. Pereira's hiring and his assessment of her judgment and attitude, he requested time before answering. He called back about 15 minutes later. 
"I disapprove of the joke," Mr. Sutter said during his response. "I don't think anybody is ever going to forget it. That is an incident that she will have to face." 
When asked whether he is concerned about the public image his office is projecting by hiring a person who made a racist comment that the state's highest court determined is grounds for firing from a public agency, he said: "She told a very inappropriate joke. She has apologized many times. Whether the public accepts her apology for that is up to the individual." 
The Standard-Times has chosen not to print the joke, due to its offensive content.

Contact Joseph R. LaPlante 
at [email protected]


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