12/19/2023 0 Comments City of quincy town hall![]() ![]() An unremarkable 10 square miles created when a few disgruntled townsfolk seceded from Abington in 1874, it’s considered by some a suburb of Brockton. ![]() You could be forgiven for not finding Rockland on a map. She was a mother and wife, alone at a bar with a married man on a school night. After all, she’d gotten drunk that night. She would be the one judged and attacked while her family was torn apart. This was small-town New England, where, even in the 21st century, an allegation like hers could backfire. Her accusations weren’t going to land in the New York Times. Ultimately, Hall decided to remain quiet. Had Hall become one of them the night before? Was she Massachusetts’ newest face of the #MeToo movement? Yet for every one of those women, there were still countless others toiling away in far less glamorous places who had been sexually harassed and assaulted by their male colleagues. In the months leading up to that night, a series of high-profile women had landed on the front pages of newspapers, speaking boldly about the sexual predators they’d been forced to work with, from Harvey Weinstein to Matt Lauer and Louis CK. But right now, she couldn’t even think about that. She’d already begun raising money to finance a run for the 5th Plymouth District state representative seat and planned to spend the summer knocking on doors and shaking hands. Hall considered her elected position the first step in what she hoped would be a long and effective political career. ![]() That night, she had chaired the meeting for the very first time. Maybe she had blocked memories of the night before because they were the kinds of things that were too disturbing to face in the light of day.Īmbitious and bright, Hall was the only woman on the Rockland Board of Selectmen and easily its most qualified member-for seven years, she’d worked as an attorney for the city of Quincy. The trauma of that experience had stayed with her. She’d come forward and testified against her attacker at the trial. Years earlier, as an undergraduate studying abroad, Hall had been the victim of a sexual assault. There was also Chiocca’s demand for oral sex whether she delivered, she couldn’t remember. And then what? Most of the night was a blank.Īs she made her way to work, disturbing fragments jumped out from the darkness of her mind like struck matches, each one a shot of burning phosphorous to the nostril: sitting in the front seat of Chiocca’s truck, idling in the parking lot driving around town at midnight for God knows how long tipsy negotiations in the shadows outside town hall then Chiocca at the keypad, unlocking the door to the government building. ![]() There was the stripped-down interior of the Rockland Bar & Grill, a glass of wine-maybe several more-plus boozy conversation at the dimly lit watering hole with Allan Chiocca, Rockland’s town administrator. Hoisting herself out of bed to help her three children get ready for the day, she searched her memory for scenes from the previous evening. Deirdre Hall woke up on May 2, 2018, in the fog of a wine-fueled hangover. ![]()
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