Sen. Cheryl Jacques Charged with Misusing Federal Workers

State Senator Accused of Using Youths for Political Activity

Sidebar:
Wakefield Massacre Caused by Jacques Gun Law

April 3, 2001

Formal complaints have been filed against State Senator Cheryl Jacques charging her with criminal misuse of federally funded workers for political action. 

A Massachusetts government watch group, Citizens for Truth in Politics (CTP), has filed videotapes and letters which it says proves that Jacques solicited the involvement of 150 federally funded “City Year” youth workers for the "First Monday" rally sponsored by her on October 2, 2000 where she called for more gun control legislation. 

Federal law under U.S. title 18, sections 666 and 641, prohibits the use of federal funds for political purposes.  The law carries a penalty of fines and imprisonment of up to ten years. 

"Senator Jacques deliberately misled City Year administrators into believing the rally was focused on public safety and was not a political rally," asserts CTP founder Lawrence Savage.  When City Year administrators learned of the political content, they were forced to withhold compensation from youth workers for the time worked at the rally.  

"Senator Jacques basically stole these young people's labor," Savage said. "We are calling for her to personally reimburse the youth workers and to resign her position." He says that irate City Year management immediately put into place measures to prevent further abuse, and offered other work opportunities to the workers. Over 20 City Year workers were used to set up the 4000 shoes at Trinity Church for the "Silent March" exhibit which were to represent the 4000 children killed by gunfire. 

Savage says the workers were also used to attend the rally to boost tepid attendance.

He charged that Jacques, who has announced her candidacy for Lt. Governor, has skillfully used the issue of gun control to seize the media spotlight. She sponsored Massachusetts' 1998 gun control law, deemed the nations' toughest. Critics of the law blame it for the dramatic increase in violent crime recorded since the law went into effect. Civil rights groups from the Massachusetts Gun Owners' Action League to the Boston gay gun rights group the Pink Pistols have condemned the law, he says, claiming it has actually increased crime and that it legalizes arbitrary discrimination by town police chiefs. Under Jacques' law, he says, each town police chief has sovereign power to issue or withhold licenses based on any criteria they decide, without providing the reason to the applicant. 

Savage noted that in the aftermath of the workplace shootings in Wakefield, Jacques called for even stronger gun control measures, but a letter printed in the Boston Herald on January 11 emphasizes that one of the Wakefield victims had a New Hampshire pistol permit and was denied a reciprocal license under Jacques' own law.  

Senator Jacques is presently working with gun control groups nationwide to export similar laws to other states. 

"We are asking for criminal charges, absolutely," emphasized Richard Kramer, the CTP activist who obtained statements from City Year administrators proving Jacques' embezzlement.  "Misusing public funds is criminal. Exploiting City Year children is wrong. This Senator puts lives of Commonwealth citizens at risk to further her political career, and she uses our own money to do it. Public money should be used for schools and roads, not to fund the gun control lobby." Kramer noted that a string of criminal scandals this past month has exposed how the gun control lobby bankrolls itself heavily from public funds. 

In late February, California activist Jim March proved that the Million Mom March (MMM), newest member of the gun control lobby, had been fraudulently operating as "The Trauma Foundation," occupying an entire floor of a California state-funded hospital rent-free without the hospital's knowledge or consent, and funding its gun control programs with federal grants from the Center for Disease Control.  Evicted from the hospital by angry administrators, the MMM laid off 30 of 35 staffers, blaming "overly aggressive growth" in a New York Times article.  Officials place the value of public funds embezzled by MMM in the millions, and March expects criminal charges to be filed.  Jacques recently spoke at a Million Mom March meeting in Wakefield, and featured several MMM speakers at her "First Monday" rally. 

Other recent criminal cases have dogged the gun control movement, said the group. A D.C. jury recently convicted Million Mom March organizer Barbara Graham of stalking, shooting, and paralyzing an innocent man she mistakenly blamed for her son's murder. Then, on March 23, a story in the Austin Statesman-American reported that Texas talk show host Alex Jones had videotape showing members of the gun control lobby paying cash payoffs to gang members in exchange for testimony in favor of gun control proposals at Public Safety Committee hearings in Texas. 

"The people who pass criminal records checks to get their gun licenses are not the criminals," Savage noted. "But the gun control lobbyists and the officials who are in their pocket could use some serious investigation." 

More information about the charges filed against Jacques may be found at the group’s website, www.citizensfortruth.com.

Sidebar:
Wakefield Massacre Caused by Jacques Gun Law

The following letter was printed in the January 11 edition of the Boston Herald.

April 3, 2001

Louis "Sandy" Javelle was my friend. On Dec. 26 in Wakefield, he was killed by a madman.

Sandy held both a federal firearms license and a permit to carry a handgun in New Hampshire. Ironically, the gun laws in Massachusetts prevented him from carrying a concealed handgun. But these same laws did not prevent Michael McDermott from obtaining illegal firearms.

When the rampage started, Sandy told co-workers to lock the door behind him and barricade it. He then confronted McDermott and became the third victim. If Sandy had been permitted to carry a pistol, he could have stopped McDermott. That meant that five other people could possible have survived this tragedy. But Sandy did not have that option.

- David Bergquist
Temple, N.H.  

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