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| Mass. inmates allege officer abused them for years |
| By Milford Daily News |
| Published: 09/12/2003 |
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At least seven inmates at MCI-Concord are pointing fingers at a officer they say has abused them for years -- Cosmo A. Bisazza, a well-known local tae kwon do instructor. According to a lawyer who represents Massachusetts prisoners, complaints were made against Bisazza by various inmates long before defrocked priest John J. Geoghan was incarcerated in Concord. But the complaints weren't noticed until an already high profile case connected to the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal got even more attention when Geoghan was killed Aug. 23 at the hands of a fellow inmate. 'The complaints that we've received about (Bisazza) go back a number of years,' said James Pingeon, a lawyer with the Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services. Pingeon and other lawyers with his agency provide legal assistance to poor inmates. 'There's been a lot of material (in the media) about the kinds of abuse that went on. Some of it may have been at the hands of Mr. Bisazza and some of it may not have been.' The Boston Herald reported that Bisazza, a longtime Marlborough resident who runs Kwon's Tae Kwon Do Academy on Boston Post Road East, tortured and repeatedly abused Geoghan while he was at MCI-Concord. The 68-year-old ex-priest was later transferred to MCI-Shirley. Now, several state agencies are probing Geoghan's death, trying to pinpoint who may have been negligent and what went wrong behind the walls of MCI-Shirley that left an inmate murdered inside a maximum security facility. Pingeon said correction officers in many prisons often get away with bad behavior while supervisors turn a blind eye. Bisazza, 50, could not be reached for comment yesterday. His son, who also offered no comment, was at the tae kwon do studio, which remained open for business yesterday. Just after noontime, police were called to the studio after Bisazza called authorities to report that reporters were harassing him at his place of work. Those who know Bisazza say the allegations are false. Claims by various inmates about Bisazza's alleged treatment don't mix with the image of a man who's given so much back to the city of Marlborough. Stephen Crawford, spokesman for the Massachusetts Correction Officers' Federated Union to which Bisazza belongs, issued a brief statement yesterday afternoon. 'We will not respond to unsubstantiated claims made by the lawyer of unnamed convicted felons,' Crawford wrote in a one-sentence press release. But Pingeon said it's responses like Crawford's that continue to perpetuate a problem already proving difficult to maintain. Pingeon said his office has called for an independent commission to investigate the allegations against Bisazza. Bisazza was named, along with eight others, in a lawsuit brought by an inmate in federal district court alleging mistreatment. Judge Douglas P. Woodlock questioned the inmate's allegations in a June letter, demanding more evidence. |
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