Scott Brown, Jeff Perry, Lisa Allen, Integrity and Character.

United States Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) reveals in his new memoir, Against All Odds, he was the victim of sexual abuse by a camp counselor when he was 10 years old. According to the Boston Herald, “Brown says he kept quiet about the incident for years and didn’t even tell his mother because his attacker threatened to kill him if he alerted authorities.”

Brown will appear in a highly publicized interview on Sunday’s edition of “60 Minutes”. The disturbing tale, along with other chapters from Brown’s hardscrabble youth, prompted much comment on Wednesday.  A few moments before 7 p.m. yesterday, the last caller on Boston-based  Howie Carr’s program made a quick but startling observation. With what we now know of Scott Brown’s traumatic experience with a sexual predator, how could the popular United States Senator have stood by Republican congressional candidate Jeff Perry last fall, vouching for the beleaguered former police sergeant’s “character and integrity”?

Perry, who lost the race for the open seat last November, was the supervising sergeant in Wareham, Massachusetts in 1991 when Officer Scott Flanagan strip searched 14 year old Lisa Allen.  The Cape Cod Times reported last fall that “records show that Perry, a Wareham police sergeant at the time, was at the scene when Flanagan ordered Allen to pull up her shirt and bra and reached his hand into her underwear.” Flanagan plead to charges related to the assault on Allen.

It is undisputed that Perry was standing nearby when the assault occurred on the 14 year old.  Perry was not charged, resigned from the police department shortly after the crime occurred, Last October, Allen released a statement through her lawyer that derailed Perry’s campaign.  She said,”Jeff Perry was nearby when Scott Flanagan illegally strip searched me. Perry knew what Flanagan did, he had to hear me screaming and crying. Instead of helping me, Jeff Perry denied anything happened.”

While other Massachusetts Republicans put some distance between themselves and Perry when Allen stepped forward, Brown stuck by Perry. The details of the case were well-known when Brown hailed Perry as “a guy who has a lot of integrity and character.” A victim of sexual abuse and the threats and furtive manipulations that accompany it, Brown was eager only 4 months ago to dismiss Perry’s role in the outrage in order to help a political ally.  In retrospect, Brown’s enthusiastic support for Perry is a chilling choice of politics over decency. Brown’s manuscript may have been completed by then, so it’s likely silent on that discreditable episode.