Investigation into Quincy cop: Sexual harassment accusations from colleague, friends

QUINCY − An external investigation into former Quincy police detective Andrew Keenan reveals new allegations of sexual harassment by two of Keenan's former friends as well as by a Quincy police officer.

There is "sufficient evidence" supporting these allegations, the investigation says. Keenan violated the police department's harassment and personal conduct policies, according to a recently released report that summarizes the investigation.

Keenan resigned Thursday, April 25, after about 10 years on the force, after Police Chief Mark Kennedy recommended a termination hearing. He will receive his pension, according to the mayor's chief of staff, Chris Walker. Keenan is the son of former Quincy police Chief Paul Keenan and the nephew of Koch and state Sen. John Keenan.

Kennedy placed Keenan on leave in July 2023 and launched an internal investigation into alleged sexual advances toward a young woman with developmental disabilities who lived and worked at the Cardinal Cushing School in Hanover. The incident occurred in 2017, when Keenan's father was still the chief. Chief Keenan retired in June 2023.

In August 2023, a month into the internal review, an unnamed Quincy police officer reported sexual harassment and unwanted online contact from Keenan, Kennedy wrote in a letter to Mayor Thomas Koch recommending a termination hearing.

Less than a month after that, on Sept. 11, a former friend of Keenan’s called Quincy police to report “inappropriate conduct by Andrew Keenan over many years,” the report said.

That same month, Quincy hired Kurker Paget, an employment law firm based in Waltham, to conduct an independent investigation into whether Keenan violated Quincy police’s harassment and personal conduct policies.

In his resignation letter, Keenan denied the allegations made in the report. "This decision to leave a career which I truly love was difficult but made so that I can devote time to my family and move on with my life," Keenan wrote. "This should not, in any way, be construed as an admission of wrongdoing."

Keenan's attorney, Paul Hynes, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

'Grossly immoral, lewd, discourteous and lewd.' The new allegations against Andrew Keenan

The three-page report was released by Quincy City Hall after 5 p.m. on Friday, April 26, Its author, Kurker Paget investigator Daryl Andrews, said that he interviewed five people, including Andrew Keenan, and reviewed documentation provided by Quincy as well as witnesses over a period of three months.

The city received only the three-page summary of Andrews' findings from Kurker Paget and will not request interview transcripts and source documents related to the investigation, Walker said.

The report cites "sufficient evidence" that Keenan made "advances" on a fellow police officer through email, including a sexually explicit photograph. It does not provide a date or time frame for the alleged advances or emailed photograph.

Kennedy would not say if the officer who made the complaint still works for the department due to privacy concerns. Speaking to The Patriot Ledger by phone from a conference in Colorado on Tuesday, Kennedy said he believes the incident occurred between 2015 and 2017, but could not confirm that without access to his files.

The Kurker Paget report reveals that two of Keenan's former friends from Hanover came forward after the story of Keenan's alleged sexual misconduct broke in August 2023. One of the friends said that in 2015 Keenan engaged in unwanted, sexually explicit behavior while wearing his police uniform during a video call.

The report characterizes Keenan's alleged conduct during the video as "grossly immoral, lewd, discourteous and rude."

The second friend provided Kurker Paget with evidence that Keenan used online aliases to get private photographs of former classmates and that he engaged in "catfishing," or luring someone into a relationship by using a fake online persona, according to the report.

Keenan admitted to "sexting" friends but said it was always consensual. He denied using aliases, the report says.

Chief Kennedy said he doesn't believe any of the allegations qualify as criminal conduct.

"The people who came forward, they weren't seeking anything criminal," he said. "Their main concern was that (Keenan) shouldn't be a police officer."

Kennedy said the police officer and former friends heard about the investigation in the news around August and then contacted the department's professional standards unit to report their experiences with Keenan.

Abuse of 'power and authority.' Quincy report's conclusions about old allegations against Keenan

Before allegations about Keenan's harassment of former classmates and a fellow police officer surfaced, the investigation focused on Keenan's sexting with a developmentally disabled woman living and working at the Cardinal Cushing School in Hanover.

The incident took place in 2017, when Keenan was employed as a Quincy police officer.

Keenan was also investigated in 2012, when he worked for Cardinal Cushing, by the Disabled Persons Protection Commission in an instance of allegedly "sexting" another different student of similar disabilities, according to Hanover police records. That case was found to be unsubstantiated and closed without referral for a criminal investigation.

Walker said the mayor's office had no knowledge of the 2012 investigation when Keenan was hired in 2014.

The Kurker Paget report concludes that Keenan violated both the department’s harassment policy and personal conduct policy by initiating sexual conversations with the former Cardinal Cushing students, whom the report describes as “part of a vulnerable community.”

The report says that evidence indicates Keenan “abused his power and authority” over the student involved in the 2017 communications and exhibited “grossly immoral conduct."

What did the Hanover police investigation uncover in 2017 and how did Quincy police respond?

In 2017, Hanover police said concluded that probable cause for criminal wrongdoing existed and referred the case to the Plymouth County District Attorney's office. But the DA reached the opposite conclusion, finding that Keenan's "conduct did not support criminal charges." Rather, the communications were between "consenting adults, and the victim did not want to go forward," a spokesperson of the District Attorney's office said

Keenan met the woman years earlier when he worked at the Cardinal Cushing School as a lifeguard and teaching assistant, according to Hanover police documents. In August 2017, he contacted her through Facebook and initiated a conversation, according to a Hanover detective's affidavit.

Keenan began a conversation through the Facebook Messenger app that quickly turned sexual, with Keenan telling her he was "horny," sending an explicit image of his genitals and asking the woman to reciprocate with a video of herself, the affidavit says .

The woman is described in the affidavit as needing "regular assistance with decision making. She has a past history of reduced insight and judgment in terms of social interactions."

When Hanover police detectives interviewed Keenan in 2017, he "acknowledged the situation and was remorseful about his actions," according to Hanover police documents.

The Plymouth County District Attorney's office notified Quincy police in 2017 of Keenan's conduct and potential violations of departmental policies, a spokesperson said. However, no record of formal disciplinary action taken by Quincy police exists from that time period, though Chief Kennedy said the incident was "dealt with."

"Administratively, it wasn't papered correctly," Kennedy said. "It wasn't documented the way we would have liked."

Kennedy said that Keenan was placed on paid leave for a few weeks in 2017 around the time of the criminal investigation.

Why did the investigation into Andrew Keenan begin?

In September, Kennedy told The Patriot Ledger that his office first learned of the 2017 criminal investigation through social media posts a few weeks after his swearing in June 23, 2023. At the time, he didn't specify the source of those posts.

"It was a former employee that was fired and went to prison who had an ax to grind," Kennedy told The Patriot Ledger in a phone interview Tuesday. "It was former Lt. Tom Corliss."

Corliss was convicted on 10 felony counts of mail fraud and one count of embezzlement in September 2017. Corliss was sentenced to one year and one day of federal prison time for double dipping, receiving over $8,000 for overlapping shifts. He also had his pension revoked.

Kennedy said Corliss was posting on Facebook that he had copies of police reports related to Keenan and the Cardinal Cushing students and that he was giving them to the media.

Documents obtained by The Patriot Ledger from the Hanover Police Department show Corliss submitted a public records request on June 29, 2023, related to Andrew Keenan, about two weeks before Kennedy placed Keenan on leave.

'I hope everyone moves on.' Kennedy reflects on time as Keenan's supervisor

"I worked with Andrew a lot," Kennedy said. "When I was in charge of the SWAT team, he was on the SWAT team. He was by all accounts a good kid. He had a good head on his shoulders. From my perspective, as his supervisor, I never had an issue with him.

"It's unfortunate for him and his family," he said. "I hope everyone moves on."

Peter Blandino covers Quincy. You can reach him at pblandino@patriotledger.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Quincy police reveal sex harassment claims against ex-officer Keenan