BOSTON — Massachusetts Senate President Harriette Chandler is pledging not to reveal the identities of individuals who gave information during the Senate’s investigation into former Democratic Senate President Stan Rosenberg and his estranged husband Bryon Hefner.
Chandler, also a Democrat, told reporters Monday the Senate granted confidentiality to those who aided the investigation.
Chandler’s comments come as an attorney for the Senate has accused Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey of “fishing” for the identities.
Healey’s office filed a motion last month in Suffolk Superior Court seeking information gathered by the Boston law firm Hogan Lovells for the Senate ethics investigation into Rosenberg, including interviews with potential victims.
Hefner is facing criminal charges of sexual assault, distributing nude photos without consent and criminal lewdness. He has pleaded not guilty.
Rosenberg resigned from the Senate in May after the release of an ethics report that found he failed to protect the Senate from Hefner.
Rosenberg hasn’t been criminally charged but is the subject, with Hefner, of a civil lawsuit. The June 15 lawsuit alleges that Rosenberg, 68, “knew or was aware” that Hefner, 31, posed a risk to individuals in the Statehouse and that Rosenberg and Hefner had an agreement or understanding allowing Hefner access to those individuals, “with whom Defendant Hefner could engage in unwanted sexual touching.”
The lawsuit alleges that Hefner grabbed the unnamed plaintiff’s genitals without consent on three occasions in 2015 and 2016 and that the plaintiff suffers from ongoing emotional and physical distress from the incidents, including “depression, anxiety, muscle tension, gastrointestinal distress and impaired sleep.”
Attorneys for Rosenberg and Hefner have asked the court to reveal the accuser’s identity.
