"Tacoma Confidential:"
Secrecy Kills
LaRosa, an Emmy award-winning producer
for CBS News' "48 Hours," peels back layer upon layer
of small town and big city secrets which, had they been exposed
to the light earlier, might have saved lives.
Like all secrets, the trouble
began to boil as bits of the truth began to spill out, in this
case, on a website run by a bowling alley bartender.
The cast of characters: seemingly
ordinary people, alike only in their decision in keeping certain
things quiet - for way too long.
A big city police chief, a high
school baseball and basketball star from a family of cops, well-liked
by his colleagues, few of whom knew he had been accused of rape.
His accuser, a juvenile counselor
who was afraid to call the police because he was the police,
but who later told another officer and the department of Internal
Affairs, which wound up quietly closing the case.
The city manager, who knew of
the accusation, but for reasons of his own decided to stand by
his soon-to-be top cop and promote him instead.
The police chief's wife, behind
closed doors the target of threats and other verbal abuse, but
to the public, a resident of the seemingly idyllic suburb of
Gig Harbor, Washington, seen standing by the chief's side as
he took his ceremonial bows.
Their two young children, who
were only a few feet away when the chief finally and tragically
burst into the headlines, shooting their mother and then himself
in a murder-suicide that took Gig Harbor by surprise.
Perhaps it shouldn't have.
Read LaRosa's book and decide
for yourself. |
