As an array of reports raise questions about the Massachusetts court system’s history with Jorge Zambrano, the career criminal who fatally shot Auburn Police Officer Ronald Tarentino, Jr., this week, Gov. Charlie Baker is cautioning against a rush to judgment.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday after a State Police awards ceremony at the State House, Baker stressed that information about Zambrano’s past is being released piecemeal—and that any conclusions about what may have been wrong, and how it might be fixed, would be premature.
When a reporter asked Baker if he’d consider reclassifying assault and battery on a police officer from a misdemeanor to a felony, the governor replied: “I think the first thing we need to do is wait until these investigations are finished, and we can determine exactly what happened."
“I’m paying as much attention as anybody is to a lot of the back-and-forth that’s going on out there at the moment, and there’s a lot of conflicting information,” Baker added. “And I think the most important thing for us to do is make sure we really understand what the facts are, and then act accordingly."
“Certainly, the courts are taking a look at this, we’re taking a look at it, and I’m hoping that in a fairly short period of time we’ll be in a position to make some decisions based on what we learn,” he said.
Asked by another reporter what he’d say to the “three judges who allowed Zambrano to be free,” Baker answered: “I have to believe all the judges consider this to be a terrible mistake, and a tragedy. But again, I want to see the facts of the case, and see what was actually in front of them. And I want to get out of, sort of, this bits-and-pieces-at-a-time distribution of information and rumor.”
“What happened to Officer Tarentino—for his family, for his colleagues, for our community—is a tragedy sort of beyond compare,” Baker continued. “And I have to believe the folks in the criminal justice system are taking a good, hard look at what happened here, because I have to believe that simply as human beings, this would cause them the same kind of angst and dismay that I think the rest of us feel."
“But let’s not draw conclusions based on less than perfect information here," he said, concluding his remarks on the subject. "Let’s wait and see what the facts are, and then act based on that.”
