A local business owner in Franklin says the city's police chief retaliated against her after she publicly criticized how his department handled her case.
Miriam Kovacs, owner of the Broken Spoon Restaurant, was targeted last summer after speaking out against a white supremacy group. After expressing her frustration with local law enforcement’s response to the incident, Franklin Police Chief David Goldstein posted a Facebook message defending his department. The post identified Kovacs by name.
Goldstein received public criticism for the post. City officials are investigating, but have shown support for the chief.
Separately, police union members voted “no confidence” in Goldstein last month, accusing him of creating a hostile workplace through retaliation and intimidation.
The Boston Globe's Steven Porter discussed his reporting on what’s happening in Franklin with NHPR’s Morning Edition host Rick Ganley. Below is a transcript of their conversation.
Transcript
Rick Ganley: Steven, can you give us a quick rundown of what's going on in Franklin and how this situation got started?
Steven Porter: Absolutely. So this story really began last summer. That's when Miriam Kovacs, who owns the Broken Spoon Restaurant in Franklin, spoke out publicly against a white nationalist group. And then she received an onslaught of online harassment and fake reviews for her business. In response to her speaking out, some of the reviews included racist and anti-Semitic references and even invoked the Holocaust. Miriam Kovacs, by the way, is of Jewish and South Asian heritage.
So she reported this whole incident of [harassment] to Franklin Police, and they took a report and the city of Franklin started taking a series of actions in response to this whole incident. They held public listening sessions, put out a statement condemning hate and put together a committee to address intolerance. But Kovacs said that police failed to treat her case with the seriousness that it warranted and that the city's response has really focused more on rhetoric than action.
Rick Ganley: So her initial complaint was against the Franklin Police for the way they've responded to this harassment. And I know the Franklin police chief, David Goldstein, publicly reprimanded Miriam Kovacs on Facebook. What was he responding to specifically, and what was the impact of that post?
Steven Porter: So Miriam Kovacs was invited to participate in early February as a panelist for a hate crimes forum that was organized by the US attorney and the New Hampshire Attorney General's office. And during that event, she mentioned her dissatisfaction with local officials in Franklin and how they had handled her case and the overall situation. She had suggested that local officials' action does not always follow their words.
So Chief Goldstein put out that statement on Facebook after he caught wind of the comments that Ms. Kovacs had made at that forum. And so his post was really expressing an effort to defend his team, his department, and how city officials had handled the whole situation. And he really cast doubt on Ms. Kovacs' credibility.
So after there was all of this criticism from the general public in response to Chief Goldstein's statement on Facebook, Miriam Kovacs responded with a statement of her own, saying that this was a form of retaliation against her and that it had led to an escalation of targeting and harassment against her. She posted screenshots on Facebook of white nationalists who had, you know, commented on social media, a fresh wave against her for the next iteration of this conversation as a direct result of Chief Goldstein's calling her out on Facebook.
Rick Ganley: Now, Steven, the police department also reportedly investigated a former Franklin police officer that Kovacs is dating. Why did they instigate that investigation and what did they find?
Steven Porter: That's right. So it turns out that even before Chief Goldstein had gone public on Facebook with his statement really responding to what Miriam Kovacs had said, Chief Goldstein had already pushed back internally against Officer Mark Faro, who has been dating Miriam Kovacs. And he did that because there has been some disagreement among officers on the force about whether it's appropriate for Officer Faro to be dating someone who is so vocally criticizing the department. Chief Goldstein wrote in a letter to Officer Faro that it's clear that Kovacs promotes, "anti Franklin Police Department and anti law enforcement attitudes and behaviors."
And so the chief concluded after an internal investigation that the relationship between Officer Faro and Miriam Kovacs constitutes a violation of the department's policy on relationships between police personnel and members of the public who could invite skepticism about the department's independence and skepticism about the department's appropriate relationship with the public. And specifically, the investigation said that colleagues of Officer Faro had begun to question his dedication and loyalty to his chosen profession as a result of his relationship with Ms. Kovacs.
Rick Ganley: How have the city and the police department been responding to Goldstein's action in this case?
Steven Porter: So there is still more information to come about exactly what all is at play currently. I do know that city officials have expressed confidence in Chief Goldstein's leadership, and they have said as much during a public meeting that I attended on Monday night. There really seems to be an outpouring of support for the chief in response to the slew of criticism that he received both for that investigation into Officer Faro and for the statement he made on Facebook.
Rick Ganley: Steven, is there any talk in Franklin that Chief David Goldstein stepped out of the norm by naming Kovacs publicly as a complainant and then investigating her relationships?
Steven Porter: Well, that's certainly some of the criticism that we have seen from members of the public. As far as city officials are concerned, who would actually have oversight of the police department, I have not heard specifically that level of concern or criticism. But there's more to more to come to light in this overall investigation. So we'll see what city officials have to say when the investigation is complete. I will say that as a reporter, it seems uncommon for a police chief to make this sort of public statement. But you do have to remember that Miriam Kovacs has spoken publicly about the situation herself. So Chief Goldstein may be making this statement on Facebook with the belief that her name is already publicly available.
As far as the investigation into the intimate relationship between Officer Faro and Miriam Kovacs is concerned, that struck me as unusual. That report found that Kovacs had expressed "anti-police messages in person and online." So one of the unanswered questions that I have for city officials is this idea of what's the difference between expressing an anti-police message versus expressing criticism of police.
