PROVINCETOWN — Paul Schofield, the innkeeper charged last fall with assaulting a Bulgarian student, destruction of property, and disorderly conduct, was found not guilty by a jury at a March 27 trial in Orleans District Court. But a review of court records by the Independent shows that the Provincetown police failed to turn over important evidence of the alleged crimes before the trial, and that the victims were never notified that the trial was taking place and therefore were prevented from testifying.
The missing evidence includes a 22-page Provincetown Health Dept. report with descriptions of the assault written by Building Commissioner Anne Howard, Code Enforcement Officer Aaron Hobart, and Health Director Lezli Rowell, who witnessed the conduct Schofield was arrested for, as well as a video taken by Rowell during the incident. In interviews this week, Cape and Islands District Attorney Rob Galibois and Provincetown Town Manager Alex Morse both said they had never seen the video.
Morse argued that the police had acted within their discretion in withholding the video. He said he did not know who in the department had made that decision. But Galibois disagreed with Morse, saying it was the duty of the police to turn over all evidence in their possession.
Four Bulgarian college students, Emanuil Ninov, Renata Alenina, Alexandra Atanasova, and Christian Bratanov, who were living in one of Schofield’s properties last summer and said that he harassed and assaulted them, told the Independent that they were never contacted by the district attorney’s office to testify and that they didn’t know the trial had taken place.
Galibois said that his office had no way of reaching the students, who had returned to Bulgaria before the trial, and that the Provincetown police did not provide his office with contact information for them beyond the apartment they had rented from Schofield and their U.S. phone numbers. One of the students, Bratanov, said he gave his phone number, email address, and a local mailing address to the police following Schofield’s arrest on Sept. 7.
Excluded Evidence
According to pretrial documents, Schofield’s attorney, Christopher Somma of Durham, N.H., filed a motion to exclude evidence on March 25, two days before the trial. That same day, Somma said, he was notified by Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Suttle that Rowell provided him with notes, including a reference to the video Rowell took during the incident.
This contravened Massachusetts criminal procedure, Somma argued, which requires automatic disclosure of possible evidence before trial. The information provided by Rowell had been available to the Commonwealth since October, Somma said. “There is absolutely no reason why Officer [Simon] Saliba or someone else from the government could not obtain this information in a timely manner,” he wrote. Judge Robert A. Welsh allowed Somma’s motion.
Galibois and First Assistant District Attorney Jessica Elumba told the Independent that the responsibility for turning over evidence falls squarely on law enforcement. The police had handed over some evidence on Dec. 6, Elumba said, including photos, police logs, 911 turret tapes, and police reports.
“All the information given on the eve of the trial was from the health dept.,” Elumba said. “It was never turned over by the police, and as a result, our office didn’t have it nor was even aware of its existence.”
Elumba added that prosecutors would have requested a copy of Rowell’s video if they had known it existed.
Bratanov said he had taken a video of damage Schofield had done to the students’ belongings, and that Officer Saliba took his and Rowell’s phones to view both videos. Morse confirmed that the police viewed the videos after Schofield’s arrest. According to Morse, the videos documented the incident only after the officer arrived on the scene.
“The police department knew that as such it wouldn’t be admissible and wasn’t relevant to the charges being brought,” Morse said. “There was no intentional burying of the video.”
Police Chief Jim Golden wrote in an email to the Independent that Officer Saliba saw five seconds of the video and did not take possession of it because he believed he could testify about what it showed. Golden said that Saliba is the only officer in the department to have seen the video; Morse and Galibois both said that they still have not seen it.
In addition to assault and battery of Bratanov, the police charged Schofield with destruction of property and disorderly conduct, which, according to Rowell’s written statement, were captured on video. The destruction of property charge was dismissed on the morning of the trial, while a jury found Schofield not guilty on the disorderly conduct charge.
“Prosecutors should have the opportunity to review what is potential evidence,” Galibois said.
No Help From Police
The four Bulgarian students lived in a one-bedroom apartment last summer at 5 Center St. owned by Schofield and his husband, Dr. Andrew Jorgensen, the former chief medical officer at Outer Cape Health Services.
As part of their living arrangements, the students worked at Schofield’s and Jorgensen’s various rental properties, including the Rose Acre Guest Apartments on Center Street, the Prince Albert Guest House on Commercial Street, and a seven-bedroom rental at 7 Center St. Soon after the students started work, they said, Schofield refused to pay them, after which he broke into their apartment, stole money, destroyed their personal belongings, and assaulted them during multiple eviction attempts.
Police records show that the students, as well as their employers at Mad as a Hatter and the Dolphin Fleet, went to the police several times that summer. Each time, officers told the students that their situations were a civil matter and not in the police’s purview.
Schofield was finally arrested in September after town officials witnessed Schofield physically assaulting Bratanov, according to statements by Rowell and Building Commissioner Howard and a police report by Officer Saliba.
The town paid for the temporary relocation of the students to the Harbor Hotel and Sandcastle Resort for two weeks before their return home. The move cost $3,111, which the town has asked Schofield and Jorgensen to repay. That has not happened, board of health chair Susan Troyan confirmed.
Schofield did not respond to a written request for comment.
A Trial Without Victims
Bratanov told the Independent that none of the students were aware the trial took place. According to Elumba and Galibois, a victim witness advocate attempted to contact the students beginning Sept. 26 through standard mail. But the letters were addressed to 5 Center St. — Schofield’s apartment. The students never received them.
The district attorney’s office also tried calling, Elumba said, but all they had were the students’ U.S. phone numbers, and the calls didn’t go through. The victim witness advocate reached out to the Provincetown police on Nov. 2 asking for other contact information for the students. A month later, on Dec. 3, they received a one-sentence email from Sgt. Jennifer Nolette that said, “They went back to Bulgaria/Romania.”
According to pretrial documents, Judge Welsh allowed another motion from Somma to exclude use of certain information contained in Saliba’s police report. The report, Somma argued, relied on Bratanov’s statement to the police, and Bratanov “will not be attending this trial,” Somma wrote. Saliba should be able to testify only to what he witnessed, Somma said.
Bratanov said that a couple of days after the assault, he and Atanasova went to the police station to give oral statements. They provided their emails and a post office box for the Dolphin Fleet, where several of the students worked. They also submitted a records request for documents related to the incident. The Independent reviewed correspondence between Bratanov and police records officer Barbara Peters.
“I hardly believe they didn’t have any way to reach us,” Bratanov said. “I gave them three different ways to get in contact with me. Even if they didn’t have our contact information, they could have gotten in contact with our employers.”
Golden said in his email that officers “do not routinely collect the email addresses of victims and witnesses in cases. However, should an email address be documented in a police report, this would be provided to the district attorney as part of the discovery process.”
Morse admitted that the police dept. could have tried harder to provide contact information. Golden said that the department will make it standard procedure to collect email addresses for international visitors in the future. “Your community police officers, like all humans, are not infallible, and can make mistakes,” Golden said.
“The town has worked very hard overall to protect these students,” Morse said. “This is a learning opportunity. We are learning how to prevent these things from happening in the future.”
No Coming Back
Bratanov, Atanasova, and Ninov applied for J-1 visas to return to Provincetown this summer. Their visas were denied. Renata Alenina withdrew her application before she received a response.
According to Bratanov and Ninov, all four of the students were called into the U.S. embassy in Sofia on March 29, two days after the trial, to give statements about their experiences last summer. They were called in one by one, and each session lasted two hours, during which an embassy official asked questions regarding the incident with Schofield.
“It was a range of, how did you find the housing, what was the arrangement with Schofield, what type of work did you do, what was the amount he was supposed to pay you,” Bratanov said.
Bratanov believed the students’ visas were denied because of their experience with Schofield. “I don’t see anything else beside that being the reason,” he said. “If it wasn’t, why would they call us in two months before our visa interviews?”
Bratanov said he had been looking forward to returning this summer. “Everyone told us that it would be better,” he said. “We were excited to try again, to experience Provincetown for what Provincetown is. Now we are in a position where we were abused, emotionally and physically exhausted, and then told that we can’t go back. Somehow, we are the ones getting punished.”
