Todd Sacco Seeks Answers To Vandalism

Winthrop School Committee member Todd Sacco is fuming after an act of vandalism that occurred at his home less than a week after a story appeared in the Winthrop Sun Transcript detailing his reasons for not voting in favor of Assistant Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard’s pay raise.

Whether the two events are connected is up to the police and investigators but Sacco said he wants answers.

The incident happened late Monday night or early Tuesday morning between June 3 and 4.

Sacco said he and his wife were sleeping when his wife was awoken by a loud crashing sound.

“I was sleeping and dismissed it as something falling off a shelf,” said Sacco. “When I went outside the morning of the 4th I noticed a brick on my front porch and some damage to my screen door. An hour later when my wife left to go to work, she came back in the house very upset as she had three slashed tires.”

Sacco reported the incident to the Winthrop Police.

On Thursday May 23 Sacco was one of two committee members that voted against Howard’s raise. At that meeting Sacco spoke vociferously against the raise

“On Thursday May 30th, an article came out in the Transcript in which I had spoken out again, against the raise and directed most of my ire towards the committee and its irresponsible spending,” said Sacco. “Since that time, I have been given information relative to some threats that were made against me and the police are following up on those leads. “

Sacco alleges that the attack was carried out because of his quotes in the newspaper and by someone connected to the school community.

“My first amendment rights have been violated and this cannot stand as it threatens our democracy,” said Sacco. “Most importantly, my family had nothing to do with this and should not be involved in anyway. There are people in the community who know who did this to us and I would like to ask them to come forward and share what they know with the Winthrop Police.”

Sacco said this type of behavior is what deters people from being involved in the community and its politics.

“It weakens us, and if you love your community you need to come forward and share your story, no matter how close you may be to the perpetrators,” he pleaded. “If the person or persons are man/woman enough to own up to what they did, apologize to me and my family, and pay for the damages, I am more than willing to forgive and forget. If not, it is my intention to do what I have to do to find out who they are and punish them to the fullest extent .”