Coakley tabs law firm partner to lead Big Dig criminal probe

BOSTON -- The man chosen to lead the criminal investigation into last summer's deadly Big Dig tunnel ceiling collapse was a prosecutor in the Iran-Contra affair and more recently in the disciplinary hearing against former Superior Court Judge Maria Lopez.

Paul F. Ware Jr., 63, a partner at the Boston law firm Goodwin Procter, was sworn in Thursday as a special assistant attorney general. He will determine whether criminal charges should be sought against any corporations or people in connection with the ceiling collapse in an Interstate 90 connector tunnel that killed Milena Del Valle, 39, on July 10.

"I think the importance of this task is certainly unequaled because obviously, as we all know, this investigation is informed by the tragedy that happened last summer. We're all acutely aware of that. We all have considerable feeling about it," said Ware, whose corporate clients have included General Electric, Philip Morris, Eli Lilly and Harvard University.

"From that standpoint, and from the public interest standpoint, I believe it to be a very important undertaking," he said.

In 1992, Ware accepted an appointment as lead trial counsel in the Iran-Contra prosecution of the CIA's chief of European operations. A decade later, he was special counsel for the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct's disciplinary prosecution of Lopez, who resigned from the bench in 2003.

Attorney General Martha Coakley, who has expressed doubt about whether criminal charges should be lodged against anyone in the case, said she asked Ware to lead the probe for two primary reasons.

"Paul was clearly someone who came to the top of the list as eminently qualified for it," she said. "And frankly, we were delighted to find that there were no conflicts involved because, as you might imagine, in looking at many of the people who might have been considered for this, there were other prior involvements with parties or potential parties in this."

Coakley said she hoped to have an answer within three or four months from Ware about whether criminal charges are warranted. Ware will take over an investigation that began shortly before former Attorney General Tom Reilly convened a grand jury in October.

Before taking office, Coakley told The Associated Press in a Dec. 21 interview that it could be difficult to bring criminal charges in such a complex case that involves multiple corporations involved in the design, construction and oversight of the massive construction project.

"This is a situation where everybody is responsible for this so maybe nobody is responsible for this," Coakley said in the interview with the AP. "I hope that's not true. I don't think that's true, but who and in what level of responsibility becomes a factual question. Until we determine why that tunnel collapsed, we can't start to say whether it's criminal or not, or whether someone is civilly responsible."

Coakley spokeswoman Emily LaGrassa said Thursday that the attorney general's December remarks were an effort "to make the point that it's a difficult case, and people shouldn't jump to the conclusions that there would be criminal charges."

The Big Dig criminal investigation is separate from the civil lawsuit filed by Reilly in November to recover financial damages from contractors responsible for the tunnel flaws.

Ware's appointment comes one day after the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board voted to approve an additional $6 million appropriation for repairs related to the ceiling collapse. So far, the repairs and inspections have cost $31 million.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)