It’s going to be a very busy morning May 24 for Chuck Ardito, the clerk-magistrate of the Barnstable District Court.
So many questions for the Barnstable Police Department, if only he’s willing to actually ask them.
Clerk Ardito has scheduled one of those very, very rare open hearings at 11 a.m.
The Barnstable PD, much to their chagrin, will be seeking a criminal complaint for improper storage of a firearm against Reid Mason, the 22-year-old son of the $267,210-a-year colonel of the Massachusetts State Police, Christopher Mason.
I hope Ardito asks some of the questions that the cops have been stonewalling me on. So far, for my inquiries, I seem to have been blocked by the flack for the Barnstable Police Department, Lt. Mark Mellyn.
One of my questions for Lt. Mellyn on May 5 was whether he had ever bought property from the future Colonel in Centerville? (Spoiler alert: he did, according to the Barnstable Registry of Deeds.)
First question I’d ask Ardito to ask the cops, because they’ve refused to answer me for more than a week now:
According to reliable sources, not one, but two incident reports were filed by the Barnstable PD after the incident in the early-morning hours of Feb. 28, when Reid Mason was apparently discovered sleeping in his vehicle in a parking lot at the corner of South and Sea Streets in Hyannis.
The first report was filed, as they say, “contemporaneously.” The second one was filed in late April — after I and the blogger known as turtleboy began asking questions.
The second report, which like the first the cops are refusing to release, apparently has at least one major difference from the initial one. In the first report, the BPD just reported recovering four firearms from Mason’s vehicle. In the later report the guns were reported to be unloaded, which would of course relieve the colonel’s son of many legal headaches down the road.
If I were Clerk Ardito, I’d ask the cops, why did you feel the need to write two reports on an incident which you apparently wanted to make sure never saw the light of day?
Why did you wait until the press started asking questions to file a second report?
And for the clerk: When can the media get copies of both reports, so we can compare ‘n’ contrast?
Here are some other questions I haven’t received answers to from the Barnstable PD:
Has young Mason’s license to carry (LTC) been suspended by the chief, whose son used to work with Reid Mason back in high school?
Was there a fifth firearm that was later confiscated at Reid Mason’s house?
Another line of inquiry: The Barnstable police keep a public log of recorded incidents. Everything is listed, or so it was believed. For instance, on Dec. 18, a veteran detective named Colin Kelley was arrested and charged with OUI after being stopped in his truck outside the police station.
It was early in the morning, around the same time as Reid Mason was found, and Kelley’s car wasn’t moving, just like Mason’s, although it was turned on, unlike Mason’s.
The point is, Kelley’s stop and arrest was splashed all over the log, and the story of his problem was even reported by the lackluster local newspaper.
Fast forward to Feb. 28. There is nothing — absolutely nothing — on that day’s log about Reid Mason, either the initial discovery of him in his vehicle, or any other stop to pick up his other firearm.
Clerk Ardito should ask the cops, why is the arrest of your own brother officer so prominently displayed on the log, yet there’s nothing about your interaction with the non-police son of the state’s highest law-enforcement officer?
When I found out about this incident two weeks ago, I did what I always do now when I get a tip. First I put it out on Twitter, and then I started talking about it on my radio show.
Later after turtleboy wrote about the case, I had him on the air to discuss it. And listeners began texting us, why are you guys picking on this kid?
Is it just because his father’s been gleefully firing honest state troopers for not getting an ineffective, possibly hazardous vaccine, while allowing crooked troopers who embezzled tens of thousands of dollars to retire with no jail time and full pensions?
To which I responded, yes, that’s exactly the problem with Mason. He destroyed his own honest troopers’ lives for absolutely no reason, so we just want to make sure that everyone is being treated equally here — wink wink nudge nudge.
Here’s another question I formally asked the Barnstable PD on May 5:
“Have there been any communications between the Barnstable PD and MSP, including but not limited to Col. Christopher Mason, regarding this case involving his son?”
I also made the same inquiry to the MSP Thursday, as well as asking to see a log of his cellphone calls on Feb. 28, among other things.
Before he nodded off, Reid Mason had been with other firefighters from a different department at the 19th Hole Tavern, which is popular with off-duty Barnstable cops. I asked the BPD if any of their cops had seen young Mason earlier that evening.
Again, no answers from the Barnstable PD.
Clerk Ardito, you have my phone number and my email. If you would like more suggestions for questions about the colonel’s son and that mysterious incident on Feb. 28, please call.
I remain, as always, A Concerned Citizen.
