Deval Patrick said a series of problems at the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board — including the handling of a sexual assault case involving his own brother-in-law — are to blame for the recent ousting of the agency’s top two officials, according to The Boston Globe.

On September 17, board chair Saundra Edwards was relieved of her duties and executive director Jeanne Holmes was placed on paid administrative leave.

The Globe reports:

[The] “final straw,’’ the governor said, was the “maybe unlawful’’ way that the officials handled a case involving Bernard Sigh, the governor’s brother-in-law, who was convicted in 1993 of raping Patrick’s sister, Rhonda, in San Diego.

The board determined that Sigh did not need to register as a sex offender in Massachusetts. The governor told The Globe that Edwards and Holmes pressured a hearing officer to reverse that decision.


In addition, Patrick said, several of the board’s decisions had been overturned by the Supreme Judicial Court, the agency was under fire for their handling of regulations, and the removed officials had “fostered a poor working environment.’’

Read the whole report here.