Ex-prosecutor allegedly caught with prostitute 'on leave' from Boston firm exposing school's sex abuse
Bruce Singal, charged with picking up prostitute, was not involved in firm's investigation into school
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A former Massachusetts prosecutor was allegedly caught paying a prostitute $40 for a sex act in Boston’s notorious open-air drug market and is now on leave from a prominent law firm that recently exposed alleged pervasive sexual abuse and bullying among young children at an area school.
Bruce Singal, a 73-year-old partner at the downtown Boston law firm Hinckley Allen, was arrested last month after allegedly picking up a prostitute in the Mass and Cass section of the city notorious for homelessness, open-air drug dealing and a recent string of stabbings and other violence.
David Rubin, the managing partner of the firm, told the Boston Herald on Monday that Singal "is on a leave of absence." His biography on the firm’s website says Singal represents business executives, corporations and professionals who are under investigation or indictment for a wide variety of white-collar crimes, as well as conducts commercial litigation involving major business disputes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BOSTON POLICE UP PATROLS FOR NOTORIOUS OPEN-AIR DRUG MARKET AFTER 5 STABBINGS IN 3 DAYS
A police report says Singal drove with the sex worker to a nearby parking garage before an officer approached the vehicle as part of a new initiative by Boston and Massachusetts State Police to reduce the demand for commercial sex in the area around Massachusetts Avenue.
Bruce Singal speaks to reporters after a trial on March 22, 2017. (Patrick Whittemore/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
Singal was arrested while pleading for leniency and telling cops and their supervisor he was an attorney, according to the police report obtained by the Boston Globe.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The sex worker told police he agreed to pay $40 for her to perform oral sex.
Bruce Singal is on a "leave of absence" from his Boston law firm. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Singal was initially charged with attempted human trafficking for commercial sex acts, but the charge was downgraded to a misdemeanor count of soliciting a prostitute. He was released on his own recognizance before his next court appearance scheduled for May 19.
The longtime lawyer served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the 1980s and an assistant state attorney general in the 1970s, according to his biography on the firm's website. He also claims to have been a professor at Boston College Law at one point, but a spokesman for the university tells Fox News Digital there is no record of Singal ever having taught for the school.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Singal could lose his law license if convicted.
Rubin said Singal, though a partner at the Hinckley Allen law firm, was "not at all involved with" its investigation into Mission Hill School, a pilot school serving grades kindergarten through eight in Jamaica Plain.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The firm’s report released on April 25 documented "systematic and pervasive accounts of student-on-student sexual and physical misconduct that began as far back as 2014," affecting victims as young as age 5. It also cited "explosive and violent episodes involving children that happened with alarming frequency" at the school and detailed how staff effectively "normalized" bullying and violence.
As a result of the firm's findings, Boston Public School Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius has called for the school to be shut down by the end of the academic year.