Mike Beaudet & Producer Kevin Rothstein
DEDHAM, Mass. (
MyFoxBoston.com) -- Gov. Deval Patrick reacted strongly today to a
FOX Undercover investigation exposing the wild life of a high ranking state official who spent workdays drinking in Rhode Island strip clubs.
"Are you surprised he got away with it for so long?" FOX Undercover reporter Mike Beaudet asked the governor.
"First of all, good on you for exposing that. I wish that the folks who tipped you off would tip off his supervisors. Or at least do so simultaneously. I don't want to take a good story away from you. But I'm glad he was discovered and nailed," Patrick replied.
MassWildlife deputy director Robert Deblinger has already resigned in the wake of the FOX Undercover investigation, which recorded his visits to strip clubs in Providence on nine different days in July, August and the beginning of September -- always in the middle of the afternoon, always on a workday. He had been making $106,484 a year.
Our cameras were rolling as Dr. Deblinger would leave work around 11 a.m., drive his marked state car an hour to Club Fantasies in Rhode Island, and spend three to four hours inside. On two days, he left earlier and stopped at the Cadillac Lounge, another strip bar in Providence.
"You're driving a MassWildlife car, did you think no one would notice?" Beaudet asked Dr. Deblinger, but he didn't reply to that or other questions.
We asked MassWildlife Director Wayne MacCallum about his deputy's driving the state car home every night we saw him.
"He had no approval to take that car home at night," MacCallum replied.
With Dr. Deblinger traveling to strip clubs so frequently, we asked Gov. Patrick about whether his administration needs to do a better job of watching employees.
"There's always work to do to watch employees. But these are professionals. They're expected to be treated like professionals and to behave like professionals and be accountable when they don't," Patrick said.
But anti-tax advocate Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation was less generous.
"The broad message is that nobody's minding the store," she said.
"Is there something wrong with the culture of state government that people think they can get away with this?" Beaudet asked her.
"There's something wrong with state government. And the culture has always been open to corruption and mismanagement and people thinking they can get away with things. But they don't always get away with things. Sometimes they get caught. Sometimes they get forced to resign. So you have to be pretty stupid if you work for (Mass.) Fisheries and Wildlife and you spend your days at a strip club?" Anderson said.
Dr. Deblinger has resigned his post, but since he has worked for the Commonwealth for more than 20 years, he is eligible for a pension roughly estimated to be $46,500-a-year.
