Jennifer Burney in 2016.
Former Director of Planning and Land Use Jennifer Burney filed a complaint in September accusing Town Administrator Tim Higgins and former Assistant Town Administrator Mary Day of discrimination, harassment, and intimidation. Burney alleged that Higgins and Day had thwarted her efforts to secure time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act and then working remotely so she could care for a family member under 18.
Her complaint, which was not public record, was leaked to LincolnTalk and the Lincoln Squirrel in separate emails from two different fictional email addresses. The LincolnTalk email was spoofed to appear as though it came from someone named “Debra French.” Police determined that a real Lincoln resident named Deborah French had nothing to do with it and subsequently opened an investigation into possible identity fraud and harassment.
In November, the town closed its own investigation into Higgins’s conduct after an independent investigator found that there were no facts to support any of the allegations made against him.
Lincoln police, via the district attorney’s office, issued subpoenas to Comcast and Cox Communications, an internet/cable service provider in Rhode Island, to identify the IP address of the computer that sent the anonymous emails. It transpired that the sender’s home address was that of Tara Atwood, 37, of Newport, R.I. who is Burney’s daughter, according to Chief of Police Kevin Kennedy.
Atwood has confessed to sending the emails, Kennedy said. Debra French was a “fictitious name she came up with… She was appalled that she caused this woman [Deborah French] any distress over it — that was clearly not her intention.” Atwood was not charged with a crime for using French’s name because she did not obtain anything of value by doing so, he said.
To be charged with criminal harassment, a person must commit three separate episodes of harassment against the victim, and Atwood did not do this, Kennedy said. However, “should her behavior continue towards any of the victims here, criminal charges could be filed because she’s been put on notice.”
The victims in the case are Higgins and Day as well as former Assistant Director of Planning and Land Use Paula Vaughn-McKenzie, because Atwood’s emails claimed that she and Higgins were having an extramarital affair — an allegation that Kennedy called “fabricated” and “completely untrue.”
Burney worked for the town from January 2016 until she went on leave last summer and Vaughn-McKenzie was named acting Director of Planning and Land Use. Vaughn-McKenzie has since been appointed to the role permanently.
Kennedy said that Atwood’s motivation for sending the emails was “to make sure the claims in [Burney’s] letter were in fact going to be investigated.” Burney was not aware that Atwood had sent the emails until about a week later, when Atwood admitted it to her mother, he said. “Obviously Jen was very upset at that… Jen clearly did not approve of any of this behavior.”
Right after the emails were sent, Burney denied sending them, saying she considered her complaint addressed to the Planning Board and Board of Selectmen to be confidential.
Neither Burney nor Atwood returned emails from the Lincoln Squirrel seeking comment on Tuesday.
Was it necessary to issue this report?
As stated, no crime was committed.
The individual who filed the complaint chose to keep it within the town, and confidential.
She did not file with a state agency, which would have made it truly public.
Instead, she meant it to be internal and confidential.
While we know nothing of how the investigation was conducted, we assume it was proper and the findings true.
The subjects of the allegations were found to have committed no wrong doing.
That should be the end of it.
Now, the subject is revisited.
To what end?
Hi Sara — The accusations in the anonymous emails were already publicly known via LincolnTalk, even if the Squirrel had not written about them. There were accusations involving public officials as well as a police investigation into a possible crime committed against an innocent party whose name was spoofed in the LincolnTalk email. It would have been irresponsible not to cover the issue, especially the outcome of the police investigation, which (along with identifying the culprit) also fully “cleared the names” of the public officials employed by the town. — Alice Waugh, editor