Domestic Abuse Victim Sues Beverly Police Chief Over Tweet

BEVERLY, MA — A domestic abuse victim claims in a lawsuit filed in Salem Superior Court this week that Beverly Police Chief John LeLacheur revealed details about the victim and her children on Twitter.

LeLacheur, who frequently uses Twitter to communicate with the public about police issues, posted the tweet on Oct. 18, 2017 as police searched for the woman's ex-boyfriend. Charles Dixon, the ex-boyfriend, had threatened to kill the woman, her child and her then-unborn child. The lawsuit claims the tweet included the woman's name, address, her child's name and the address where she was staying under police protection.

LeLacheur quickly removed the tweet, but not before people saw it, the complaint said. LeLacheur declined comment to the Salem News, which first reported this story.

LeLacheur "knew or should have known that public dissemination of (her) private, confidential and sensitive information posed a real and serious threat to (her), her son and unborn child," the lawsuit said.

The woman says she faced scorn from parents at her son's school and that the anxiety and fear of the incident forced her to go into early labor when her second child was born.

The search for Dixon, 35, of Reading, forced lockdowns at Beverly Hospital and Beverly High School. Beverly police eventually curtailed the search. Boston police arrested Dixon a day later.