Right To Privacy

Right To Privacy

As background on Helder Peixoto Erin Smith reports "Daniel Furtado, a
mentally ill East Cambridge man [...] was shot by police [...] after he
allegedly attacked officers with a hatchet." (Erin Smith, "From wannabe pol to
playboy, Peixoto lived double life," Cambridge Chronicle, June 07, 2007)
What is the relevance of describing Furtado as "a mentally ill" man? Does
that irrational premise suggest that mental illness causes violence? How was his
medical history obtained by Ms. Smith? It is a violation of state and US privacy
laws to reveal without consent a person's medical records. If the "history" was
obtained from a police officer, a friend or relative, are these diagnoses
reliable?
Mr. Furtado was accused not charged with a misdemeanor offense. The
officers did not see the alleged offense. The mother of a Cambridge police
officer called in the complaint. With no warrant and no court order police broke
into his home in violation of state and US laws and The Fourth Amendment to the
Constitution.
Intense unlawful animus toward persons with disabilities, pervasive among
police, caused the officers to violate all of the above laws. Police reports
omit that part of the incident. But they always include accusations of mental
illness, no matter how unreliable they are.

Roy Bercaw, Editor ENOUGH ROOM

From wannabe pol to playboy, Peixoto lived double life
By Erin Smith/Chronicle Staff
Cambridge Chronicle
Thu Jun 07, 2007, 07:00 AM EDT

Cambridge -

When Helder �Sonny� Peixoto first ran for City Council in 1999, Cambridge
residents watched as almost 1,000 of his campaign signs sprung in store windows
and front lawns overnight.

�It was a matter of great interest of how someone that nobody ever heard of
could get so much exposure so fast,� said Glenn Koocher, a former School
Committee member who ran a political commentary show on the local access channel
at the time.

There was no question that the East Cambridge native was ambitious, exploding
onto the city�s political scene with an energetic streak at the young age of 27.
He proudly told the Chronicle that he had ordered even more campaign signs in
the months before the election.

But then the whispered accusations among the Cambridge business community grew
louder � stories of Peixoto using strong-arm tactics and bullying shop owners
into displaying his signs and even flashing his MBTA police badge to help with
the convincing. Those who had political dealings with him described him as a
bully and a loose cannon who went after his political foes with a vengeance.

Peixoto made Vice Mayor Tim Toomey his unwilling political opponent in the
election, accusing Toomey of pressuring business owners to take down his
campaign signs, a charge Toomey denied.
Peixoto seemed to create buzz whenever he went.

Following his conviction for motor vehicle homicide, Peixoto moved to Florida
four years ago and tried to reinvent himself as a wealthy businessman, according
to the Palm Beach Post.

He moved to the El Cid historic district of West Palm Beach, Fla. � an area that
was developed as an upper-class neighborhood in the 1920s � and hobnobbed with
governors, mayors and crashed the parties of rich socialites, according to the
Post.

No one exactly knew Peixoto�s backstory, but some players in West Palm Beach�s
glamorous scene began to question his con story and fear his unpredictable
outbursts, according to the Post.

Peixoto even maintained his air of mystery on his Myspace page, giving few vague
details about who he was and dubbing himself �Sir Sonny.�

He described himself as �Tall tan unpredictable� and was fond of the television
show �24,� Euro house music and traveling. But there are no photos of him or any
friends or messages listed on the page. He last logged into the networking site
about two weeks before he committed suicide. Police suspect he bludgeoned his
former girlfriend, Amity Kozak, to death before hurling himself from an
11th-floor condo balcony.

Even on the brink of suicide, Peixoto kept up appearances of his fake playboy
lifestyle. A real estate agent was giving him a tour of an empty condo at The
Slade, a resort�style waterfront luxury complex, when he wandered onto the
balcony and hurled himself to his death on the sidewalk below.

But Peixoto grew up in the working-class neighborhood of East Cambridge, far
from the glitz of the socialite scene of West Palm Beach Palm, and graduated
from the criminal justice police-training program at the University of
Massachusetts-Lowell. When he first ran for City Council in 1999, he lived in
his mother�s house on Webster Avenue.

Peixoto ran on a platform to increase public safety, limit councilors� terms,
expand funding for the arts, including a scheme to build a �hatch shell� at
Magazine Beach along the Charles. But the political celebrity, which he so
desperately wanted, eluded him, and he only managed to garner 315 votes at the
polls.

But even after his losses at the polls, his commitment to the Portuguese
community in East Cambridge never yielded. Peixoto jumped in the mix to defend
the Portuguese community in 2002, after Daniel Furtado, a mentally ill East
Cambridge man who was born in Portugal, was shot by police three times after he
allegedly attacked officers with a hatchet following a four-hour stand off.

Peixoto, who was no longer living in Cambridge by then, accused Cambridge police
of racism in the case.

The following year, Peixoto found himself facing charges of vehicular homicide
in the death of a World War II veteran. By that time, Peixoto had moved out of
Cambridge and was living in Malden. Although Peixoto � who was in uniform when
his car plowed into Todd�s car � maintained his innocence, he resigned from the
force several months later.

After his eventual conviction, Peixoto moved to Florida and onto what he thought
would his new life.