On August 25, D'Amelio had arrested former Cambridge City Council candidate Aimee Smith after a discussion about the First Amendment among her and three MIT cops that included D'Amelio. Smith reported that officer D'Amelio grabbed her from behind and choked her.

Smith also filed a complaint with the MIT Police against officer D'Amelio. MIT responded by hiring Pinkertons, a private detective/security corporation, as investigators.

MIT President Charles Vest has called Pinkertons an "independent third-party." The identity of the "third-party" emerged only after two Pinkertons agents interviewed Smith about her complaint.

It is questionable that a private police agency, paid by MIT, will be independent in its judgment of abuse by MIT police. Pinkertons employees are recruited from police and FBI ranks. Pinkertons are known to cooperate closely with law enforcement agencies and sell intelligence on a range of groups, including political organizations.

D'Amelio was also involved in Smith’s arrest while handing out leaflets on a public sidewalk on MIT Commencement day, June 4. These are the only times Smith has ever been arrested. MIT subsequently moved to have the charges dropped.

Smith shook her head at the hearing as D'Amelio and another officer denied that D'Amelio had grabbed Aimee's collar and choked her.

The Pinkertons company has a rich history in violently suppressing labor struggles and in spying on and subverting legally protected political activity. Pinkerton Global Intelligence Services (PGIS) websites boast that it can provide intelligence on "activist groups."

Aziz Choudry in "Paydirt of Paranoia" ( Znet Feb 2003) quotes a Pinkerton website: "The Group [PGIS] Profiles provide a detailed overview of high-profile fringe organizations and terrorist groups. The Group Profiles highlight both global and domestic organizations.

Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals publicly stated: "It is an open secret long shared by prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges that perjury is widespread among law enforcement officers..." it was not to be expected that the officers would acknowledge any wrong doing.

The Pinkertons detective agency was started in 1852 and served the interests of the federal government and private industry in crushing labor organizing in the late nineteenth century.

The Pinkertons company worked with the FBI during the reign of J. Edgar Hoover to collect information on and subvert legally protected political organizing. A brief glance at Pinkertons web site shows that they are in the business of protecting large companies. They are not adjudicators in civil rights issues but rather shills to anyone who has the money to buy their services.

Smith commented, "if physically attacking a woman is no big deal for D'Amelio, then neither is lying about it. And if his fellow officers wouldn't stand up to him that day when he attacked me, why would they fail to cover for him in court? These officers have no respect for the laws that they are sworn to uphold."

MIT employee Jan Outcalt witnessed events just after the August 25 arrest. She was contacted by Mr. Trumello of Pinkertons and agreed to meet with him. At the interview, she found him accompanied by another Pinkertons employee, Denise Doherty, who had been an FBI agent.

Outcalt asked if she could tape record the interview because she had no witness. She said that Doherty became uncomfortable and refused that suggestion. The interview was postponed.

Richard Hugus, a Cape Cod resident, wrote to President Vest that “Pinkertons is not a credible or impartial investigator in a case of police misconduct." Three days later, Hugus received a phone call from Pinkerton agent Trumello.

Mr. Hugus was not a witness to the August 25 incident. He has no information to offer in the complaint against officer D'Amelio. Trumello left a message on Hugus' answering machine, saying he had received, from Vest, a copy of the letter that Mr. Hugus had written.

MIT community members are concerned as to why the Pinkertons agent would contact Mr. Hugus, a concerned citizen with no involvement in any of the arrests.

MIT hires private dicks

Pinkertons investigators have said that D’Amelio’s involvement in Smith’s June 4 arrest was not relevant to their investigation of the August 25 arrest of the same person by the same officer.

Based on the inappropriate focus on the part of the Pinkertons employees both in the interview and after hearing about the inappropriate behavior towards others, Aimee Smith wrote to President Vest to ask that he find a credible party to conduct the investigation into the complaint.

After that letter was sent, Jan Outcalt was contacted by Trumello, who threatened to have Vest contact her supervisors at her job if she did not "cooperate" with his investigation. Trumello also hinted that she could face felony wire tapping charges for having asked to openly record the interview that was supposed to occur at that first meeting.

Outcalt reported these abuses in a letter to President Vest. Vest's only reply was to Smith, urging her to have witnesses cooperate with the investigation.

Who are the Pinkertons?

PGIS covers the following groups: politically-based, environmentalists, anti-globalists, anti-Western groups, extremist religious factions, recognized terrorists, among many others."

Attempt to intimidate Smith supporters

It seems likely that they either (i) the Pinkertons agents and/or MIT want to intimidate supporters of Aimee Smith who express concern about MIT police abuse and/or (ii) they want to collect information about perceived political activists to supplement Pinkertons private data bases on political activists.