The Untouchable

Michael Taylor's friends say he is a top undercover man. Critics say he is out of control -- and that federal agents are protecting him. One thing is certain: the government doesn't want you to read this story.

by Tim Sandler

Part 4

Nancy Narris, one of the two officers investigating the rape case, vividly remembers what led to Taylor's arrest. The victim was raped in the parking lot of the Wagon Wheel, a country-and-western nightspot, now demolished, that was frequented by Fort Devens soldiers. Shortly after the woman was raped, Ayer police provided her with an Ayer High School yearbook to help her try to identify her attacker.

All at once, Harris recalls, the victim saw a photo that stopped her cold. "The color drained from her face. She trembled and froze," Harris says. The photo was of Michael Taylor.

On the day of Taylor's arrest, Harris says, someone from the AG's office came to the station, for what reason she doesn't know. When she later called the AG's office asking for assistance in the case -- standard procedure for a small-town police department -- assistant attorney general Fred Riley assured cooperation. That cooperation, she says, never came.

"The AG's office was of absolutely no help to us," she says. "I don't know why."

Riley later represented Taylor when the licensing bureau raised its questions about Taylor's actions and character. Contacted by the Phoenix, Riley refused to comment.

Both Harris and the victim soon began receiving harassing phone calls. One warned Harris that if she didn't drop her rape investigation, her son would find himself facing drug charges.

And Harris noticed something else disturbing: interference from other law-enforcement agencies. At one point, Joe Burzynski, an investigator at Fort Devens with whom Harris was friendly, pulled her aside and issued words of advice.

"In essence, he told me I really should back off on the Michael Taylor case," Harris recalls, noting that Burzynski said she would be attracting "the trench coats" if she pursued the matter.

By then, Burzynski knew all about Michael Taylor. Fort Devens's criminal-investigation division had already looked into a completely separate allegation of sexual assault against Taylor back in 1981, in Leominster. In that case, Taylor was found not guilty by a Worcester Superior Court judge, who issued a directed verdict (i.e., without a jury). Ayer police records indicate that the Leominster victim -- who told Ayer police that "she felt like she was the suspect" when questioned by Devens investigators -- declined to pursue the case. Burzynski refused the Phoenix's request for comment, saying before he hung up, "I don't think there is anything I can add."

In the meantime, the other investigating officer in the Ayer rape case, Dennis McDonald, was approached by FBI agent Tom Terhaar and told, as Harris was, that he should think twice about pursuing the case. According to Monahan's interview with McDonald, Terhaar cited Taylor's value to national security.

The victim received one last harassing phone call, this time at a Denver airport as she prepared to fly to Ayer for an identification lineup that included Taylor. While she was in the airport terminal, she answered a page over the public-address system. She picked up a courtesy phone and heard a male voice on the line: "You know you're making a big mistake," it told her.

When the victim arrived in Massachusetts, Harris says, she was suddenly unsure about who her attacker was. The case was dropped.

In retrospect, Harris believes the AG's lack of cooperation in the case, coupled with the remarks made by Fort Devens investigator Burzynski and FBI agent Terhaar, shows "there is a lot more to Michael Taylor than meets the eye.

"There was a whole lot going on that I wasn't aware of," she says. "What, I don't know. He was valuable to someone."

Part 5

Tim Sandler can be reached at tsandler[a]phx.com.