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At first it looked as though the hearing would not go forward as Clerk Magistrate Sullivan announced that the hearing would be "delayed ten minutes while the attorney’s are trying to work out some kind of settlement.” But then minutes later the hearing went forward with no agreement. A source close to Laboy’s attorney told www.ValleyPatriot.com that Laboy had offered McGovern a public apology to make the entire situation go away but McGovern rejected the offer. Another source close to McGovern confirmed that an apology was offered but it was not clear that he meant that the apology would be made in public. When the hearing resumed, McGovern recounted how she entered the superintendent’s office after finding that sensitive school department documents she had left in the office had been moved. “When I got there I saw people coming out of the school committee offices who didn’t belong there. The bills I had carefully laid out were no longer there the way I left them. Some of these documents contain very sensitive information. Sometimes they have social security numbers or other sensitive information on them.” McGovern
says she spoke to the school committee secretary about
the matter. “Even though I am a That’s when McGovern says she went to Laboy’s office to speak to him, admitting that she interrupted a meeting he was having with a school department employee. She also admitted that had she spoken to him “firmly” upon entering his office. “The only way I can get him to listen to me and respect the fact that I am a member of the school committee is to either speak to him firmly or ask him to show me some respect. So yes, I spoke to him firmly,” McGovern admitted. McGovern claimed that Laboy accused her of “tearing up” the bills she was supposed to sign so she left his office to retrieve the bills. But as she returned to his office to show him the bills he claimed she “tore up,” he demanded that she leave the building and tried to close his office door with McGovern on the outside. Before the alleged physical altercation took place McGovern called fellow school committee member Nancy Kennedy from her cell phone, “but Suzanne Piscitello answered her phone and heard everything that went on from that point forward,” McGovern said on the stand.
At least twice McGovern broke into tears as she was asked to recount the assault prompting Magistrate Sullivan to call a ten-minute recess. Several times McGovern had to take a break from testimony breaking down in tears any time she was asked to describe Laboy’s attitude toward her. Attorney Gleason (who represents Wilfredo Laboy) ratcheted up the drama when he pounded McGovern on the stand, first asking her a series of questions and then answering the questions for her. Gleason also tried to trip up McGovern and throw her off her story by repeating her answers back to her quite differently than she originally stated. As she tearfully tried to correct him, Gleason repeatedly interrupted her testimony with a spate of new questions, prompting the Magistrate to warn the attorney to allow McGovern to answer the questions, “you need to allow the witness to answer the questions herself” he declared. Sullivan would have to repeat that request at least twice as Gleason tried to get McGovern to lose her temper, an effort that resulted in more tears from McGovern. In the end, his badgering of McGovern only garnered sympathy for the third term school committee member. Magistrate Sullivan said he had heard enough and was about to adjourn when Gleason demanded to make “closing statements.” Sullivan said he had really heard all he wanted to hear on the issue but Gleason was relentless. Sullivan granted him the privilege of speaking one last time and he took full advantage of the situation. He played to the press and the packed room by prancing around, raising his voice, waiving his arms animated, saying that the entire judicial process would “go down the toilet” if a ruling came down that was not in favor of his client. Sullivan seemed bored by the buffoonery. For his part, Laboy sat quietly through the hearing seemingly embarrassed by the entire spectacle. He had claimed in testimony earlier in the week that McGovern grabbed his arm to stop him from closing the door to his own office, and that the assault came from McGovern not him. Laboy filed counter charges of assault and battery against McGovern but almost none of the testimony or questions from either attorney (or the magistrate) addressed the question of her assaulting him. Magistrate Sullivan said he is taking the matter "under advisement" and will issue a ruling “within a few days.” Stay
tuned, as we will post the judges ruling the minute it is
released. *Send your questions
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LAWRENCE –The assault case
against Lawrence School Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy
wrapped up today in Lawrence District Court as School
Committeeman Amy McGovern took the stand to describe how
she was physically assaulted by the superintendent.
member of the school
committee he (Laboy) has instructed the staff not to talk
to me without going through him first. But, I asked Joan
Milone (the School Committee secretary) about people
using the school committee offices and she said I had to
speak to the superintendent directly.” 
Former School Committeeman Suzanne
Piscitello, a strong Laboy supporter, testified that she
was trying to talk to McGovern about the bills and heard
Laboy “screaming” on the other end, in direct
contrast to Laboy’s witness testimony. “I was
trying to ask her what was going on when I heard the
superintendent hollering,” Piscitello said.