Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. is being accused of leading a conspiracy to alter the arrest report of Alli Bibaud, the daughter of a Worcester County judge, in a new lawsuit.
Trooper Ryan Sceviour through his attorney Leonard Kesten filed the lawsuit Friday, which claims that a "civil conspiracy initiated and directed by District Attorney Joseph Early Jr." sought to "unlawfully tamper with Court documents, to violate Trooper Ryan Sceviour's rights, and to defame him."
The new lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, is related to a lawsuit currently pending in federal court. It demands a jury trial, a public apology from the defendants, unspecified compensation and that discipline against Sceviour be expunged. It names Early, the Massachusetts State Police, Lt. Col. Francis Hughes and Lt. Daniel Risteen as defendants.
Alli Bibaud was arrested after crashing her car on Interstate 190 in Worcester in October, where she was accused of drunken and drugged driving. She is the daughter of Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud.
An arrest report by Sceviour included comments made by Alli Bibaud about offering sexual favors in exchange for drugs and a reference to her father being a judge.
The comments were scrubbed from the report and the scandal led to the early retirement of State Police Col. Richard McKeon and his second-in-command, Francis Hughes.
"In October of 2017, DA Early conceived of and entered into a conspiracy with high-ranking members of the Massachusetts State Police and others to coerce Trooper Sceviour to unlawfully alter his official police report so that DA Early could surreptitiously insert it into a court file and remove the original report," the lawsuit reads. "Further, DA Early and his co-conspirators agreed to discipline the plaintiff in order to force him to participate in their illegal plot."
When Sceviour said he objected to altering the report, Early and high-ranking members of the State Police retaliated against him and claimed that he wrote an improper report in order to "harm a victim of the opioid epidemic," the lawsuit reads.
"DA Early was aware that Ms. Bibaud had been an employee of his office in the past, as was her father, who presently served as a judge in Worcester County," the lawsuit reads. Bibaud was previously a victim/witness advocate for Early's office.
Early's attorney, Tom Kiley, said on Friday afternoon, "We will respond in due course to the allegations in this complaint in the appropriate forum in Suffolk Superior Court.
"State officials do not conspire by doing their jobs," he said.
He declined to comment further.
The lawsuit states that Judge Bibaud sought no special treatment for his daughter.
Sceviour protested changing the report and stated, "if this was some random person and not a judge's kid, none of this would be happening," according to the lawsuit.
Assistant District Attorney Jeff Travers was waiting for the altered report at the direction of Early, according to the lawsuit. Travers asked Clerk Magistrate Brendan Keenan to replace the original report with the altered one.
However, Kennan refused to do so, according to the lawsuit.
Bibaud's case was moved outside of Worcester County because of the conflict of interest. The arrest report was impounded while Bibaud awaited arraignment in Middlesex District Court.
At that point Early was aware that he "should not take any further action regarding the Bibaud case because his office was no longer prosecuting the case and had a conflict of interest in handling the matter," the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit accuses Early of contacting a member of the State Police assigned to his office and asking him to facilitate the creation of an altered report. That member of the State Police declined to do so, according to the lawsuit.
Early called McKeon and asked him what he was going to do about the report, according to the lawsuit.
"Col. McKeon told DA Early that he could not do anything about the report because it was already in the Court file and indicated that the 'ship had sailed' with regard to amending the report," the lawsuit reads.
But Early persisted, according to the lawsuit.
Sceviour was never disciplined before Bibaud's arrest, according to the lawsuit.
Alli Bibaud pleaded guilty to operating under the influence of liquor and several motor vehicle violations in connection with the case in November.
Reports released by the office of Attorney General Maura Healey in late April show that Early had multiple conversations with McKeon following Bibaud's arrest.
Healey's review of the incident concluded that no criminal charges would be sought, but she referred the matter to the State Ethics Commission.
The State Police also reviewed the case, and found that McKeon used "flawed judgment."
"Ultimately, investigations conducted by both the Attorney General and an independent investigator retained by the State Police established that DA Early had instigated the conspiracy and that he and high-ranking State Police officials had acted improperly, while Trooper Sceviour had conducted himself in accordance with his training and the law," the lawsuit reads.
Early is running for re-election this year, and faces Blake Rubin, an unenrolled candidate and a defense attorney.
MassLive reporter Gintautas Dumcius contributed to this story.