Former SHS cafe director nabbed on sex charges
Published on February 15th, 2006
STONEHAM, MA - Carlisle's School Superintendent accused a local administrator of failing to notify that town about a summer FBI investigation reportedly targeting Stoneham's former Food Services Director.
According to Carlisle Supt. Marie H. Doyle, Stoneham Business Manager Greg Zammuto didn't say a peep about the June FBI raid of the high school when her own Business Manager inquired about former Stoneham employee Dennis Dockham, who was arrested last Wednesday by Dracut Police on child pornography and sexual assault charges.
No Stoneham or Carlisle school children were victims in the alleged assaults, according to Doyle and School Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly.
Dockham, a 43-year-old Dracut resident who was hired in Carlisle last September, stands charged with two counts of indecent assault and battery of a person under 14 and one count of posing a child for sexual photos, according to Dracut Police Sgt. Mark Gosselin.
While Gosselin couldn't detail the specifics surrounding the arrest, referring The Stoneham Independent to the Dracut Police's lead detective on the case - who couldn't be reached for comment - reports published in The Lowell Sun claim that the 43-year-old Third Street resident forced an 11-year-old girl to have sex with another 11-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy.
The publication further referenced police authorities as saying that Dockham photographed the naked children and sexually assaulted at least one of the victims on two occasions.
"No, we weren't aware in September of any problems. My Business Manager had talked to someone from Stoneham," Doyle said in a phone-interview Tuesday, adding that Dockham has since been terminated from his position.
"I think it's extremely dismaying whenever you have an alleged pedophile in your schools," Doyle later responded, when asked if it upset her that she wasn't notified that the Dracut resident had reportedly been investigated for "suspicious online activity".
After being questioned by Connelly about the second quote, which was read to the Stoneham administrator by The Independent, the Carlisle Superintendent later called back to clarify that she was in no way referring to Stoneham school officials.
Adamantly denying the Carlisle official's allegations, Stoneham's Assistant Superintendent Joseph Casey claimed that no one was ever contacted for a reference check on Dockham.
"We were never contacted for any type of a reference check on that individual. I was totally unaware that he had a position until this came up," said Casey.
Later elaborating on Casey's statements Tuesday afternoon, Connelly - who was at a Rotary Club meeting when The Independent first contacted local administrators - confirmed that Zammuto did speak with Carlisle's Business Manager prior to Dockham's hiring last September.
However, the Superintendent stressed that at no time was Zammuto ever told that he was being contacted for a reference check on the former employee.
"It's my firm understanding in speaking with my Business Manager that Carlisle did not contact our office relative to a reference check on Dennis Dockham," Connelly insisted.
According to Zammuto, after Dockham's contract was not renewed last summer, a number of individuals from surrounding school districts contacted him to inquire about the nature of the 43-year-old Dracut man's exit.
And while the Business Manager admits that he would routinely answer those inquiries by saying, "his contract wasn't renewed", he was under orders from Connelly to transfer any requests for reference checks on Dockham directly to the superintendent's office.
Claiming he would have done exactly that had a Carlisle administrator called him in regards to a reference check, Zammuto described his interaction with that town's Business Manager as a brisk, off-the-cuff inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the Dracut man's departure.
"I did receive a call from Carlisle, but it certainly wasn't identified as a reference check," Zammuto commented in a phone-interview Tuesday night. "They asked me why Dennis was no longer employed and I told them. And that was it. That was the conversation."
In a prepared statement released to The Independent on Wednesday morning, Doyle stuck by her assertion and defended her employee, saying records proved the contact had taken place.
"Our phone records verify that our Business Manager, Steven Moore, did contact Stoneham Public Schools and speak to their Business Manger Greg Zammuto," the Carlisle school official claimed.
"Mr. Moore did due diligence in checking references prior to hiring Dennis Dockham, as reference checks within Stoneham and Chartwell Food Services gave no indication of any concerns with this employee," Doyle added.
Although Connelly never confirmed that Dockham was the target of the summer investigation at the high school - but did intimate that the former Food Services Director was involved in the incident - administrators declined to renew the 43-year-old's contract shortly after the FBI raid.
Both Connelly and Casey have emphasized that last June's investigation didn't center upon any improprieties involving Stoneham children. The two local administrators have also claimed that the FBI found that no illegal activity took place either within Stoneham schools or during work hours.
According to FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz, the federal law enforcement agency can't release any additional information detailing the specifics behind last June's raid - in which at least one computer was reportedly seized from the high school - as no charges or indictments have been filed against Dockham.
However, the spokeswoman added that the absence of any public records did not necessarily mean that the investigation has concluded.
"You can't acknowledge an investigation unless there's a public record. The Privacy Act protects that. So in other words, just because there's an allegation of misconduct doesn't make it true," the FBI spokeswoman commented on Tuesday.
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