A former Romney administration public safety czar and Bay State police chief is scrambling to save his reputation after he was caught in an embarrassing scandal over an affair with a reporter covering him in his new post as Milwaukee’s top cop.
Edward A. Flynn, who was Springfield police commissioner before becoming Milwaukee’s police chief in January 2008, was forced to publicly acknowledge the “painful truth” of the illicit tryst after intimate e-mail exchanges with the journalist surfaced and were published in a Brew City newspaper.
The married reporter, Jessica McBride, 39, a college journalism lecturer and freelancer, and Flynn, 61, who is also married, are reportedly no longer an item.
McBride, a former reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has defended her journalistic integrity, saying she finished a flattering profile of Flynn titled “The Cop Who Can’t Stop” before the affair blossomed in May 2008. The 5,400-word article was published in Milwaukee Magazine.
Flynn released a statement on the affair saying he did his family a “great wrong” but did not reference McBride by name.
“I profoundly regret the hurt I have inflicted on them and others affected by my conduct,” Flynn said. “I accept the personal and public consequences of my private behavior. I have damaged my public reputation and violated the trust and love of my family.”
Milwaukee city officials appear to be making no moves to fire Flynn. A call to Flynn’s Milwaukee office was not returned.
Flynn’s wife did not move to Milwaukee with Flynn. She lives in Virginia, where Flynn once was a police chief.
Gov. Mitt Romney appointed Flynn as his public safety secretary in 2002. Prior to that Flynn was police chief in Arlington County, Va. He also was top cop in Braintree and Chelsea.
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