Boston’s Honor

Paying a legal and moral debt

I want to say we are very, very sorry I for what has happened,” Mayor Raymond Flynn told the quiet widow, “and this is a small way of the city meeting its legal and moral obligation.” In the tiny kitchen of her home in Boston’s Roxbury ghetto, Patricia Bowden accepted the check for $843,498.37. Thus, in quite a different way from Miami, ended a case of police use of deadly force.

Nine years ago, Bowden’s husband James was mistaken for a grocery-store robber and was killed by two white policemen. A department inquiry cleared the officers, but Patricia Bowden, with the help of Local Attorney Lawrence O’Donnell Sr., sued for damages. After a three-year investigation that exposed a top-level police coverup, a federal court jury awarded her $250,000 plus interest.

Collecting took another three painful years. Kevin White, who was mayor at the time, insisted that it was up to the police department to pay Mrs. Bowden. Commissioner Joseph Jordan refused, arguing lack of funds. When O’Donnell attempted to collect directly from the officers involved, the police force threatened to strike. Only after a book by O’Donnell’s son Lawrence Jr. revived public indignation, and all eight mayoral candidates promised to pay the debt, did Mrs. Bowden get justice.