Over two weeks ago, Laura Sampson resigned from the Fall River City Council, publicly blaming my article recommending she recuse herself from voting on interim Chief Furtado’s police chief contract. She claimed simply mentioning that a police officer may be under her care (without mentioning a name) endangered her patients. She didn’t deny it and now the FRPD has confirmed that an officer has been under her care. Laura then went on to talk about firefighters, taxpayers and homeless under her care and then days later went on WBSM to repeat claims. If I mention police officers might be getting care (FRPD has since verified she has treated an officer), it’s bad. If she mentions firefighters get care, that’s good. Got it? It’s dangerous when I say a career field may be under her care, it’s a public service when she does it.
Sampson also claimed during her resignation speech that patients were calling her office then in an interview after, she goes on to say she was preemptively dealing with the issue. She kind of says people were calling, but she doesn’t seem confident. Watch the video a few times.
In her resignation speech on the floor, she claimed “with a simple records request from a real journalist to find out if I as a city councilor am receiving funding from a city to funnel people into my counseling practice.” Except I never made that claim…