LITCHFIELD – A minor student – interviewed by state police detectives as part of a sexual assault investigation during the 1990s – was driven to a hardware store parking lot by two unidentified men in suits who then questioned him about the case.
Years later, the former student is among the men who have filed suit against the town, claiming the school system failed to protect them from a predator coach, the late David Driscoll.
“I was summoned out of class to the main school office by the sitting principal,” said Dan Bird, now at age 47, in a statement read on the Town Green last month. “I was ushered out the front doors of the school and put into the backseat of a [large sedan]. There were two men in suits, sitting in the front, and they said nothing as they drove me to the back dirt lot of the True Value parking lot. I had no idea why I was in the car, and I remember feeling overwhelmed and frightened because I was alone, in the back seat of what I guessed was an undercover police car. They parked the car and turned around to face me and began to ask me questions about Dave Driscoll.”
Multiple law enforcement sources willing to speak to CT Examiner on the condition of anonymity, said they did not believe the men were state police, and suggested the encounter was intended to intimidate a possible witness.
“CSP protocol, even then, would have been to put him in the front seat with the second detective behind in the rear seat,” a retired detective said. “It’s possible they were private investigators.”
A second retired detective, who worked on the case, told CT Examiner he did not take the student for a ride, nor did state police. Witnesses, he said, were interviewed at their homes in the presence of parents or at the state police barracks.
Local school officials were warned for years about allegations of sexual abuse by Driscoll, according to recently released documents published by CT Examiner.
The release of those documents came shortly after Stamford-based attorney Paul Slager filed lawsuits against the town on behalf of two men who said they were abused by Driscoll while they attended Litchfield Public Schools in the 1980s and 1990s.
Driscoll, a renowned track, field and swim coach, died in September. Since his death, at least 10 men have come forward to say that they were sexually abused by Driscoll while they attended middle school.
Driscoll resigned his position at the schools in 1993 after a state police investigation found there was probable cause to charge him with third- and fourth-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and allowing a person under the age of 16 to operate a motor vehicle. But an arrest warrant was refused by then-State’s Attorney Frank Maco after witnesses refused to testify in court.
Maine State Police also attempted to arrest Driscoll for sexual assault at a water-skiing program he ran for decades at Wild Goose Camp in Harmony until 1993, but prosecutors declined to pursue the case stating the victims and witnesses were from out of state.
Efforts to reach the school principal at the time for comment have not been returned.