Treading Water

July 25, 2014 10:23 AM

Prinna Boudreau tells the story how she and her husband became the focus of a police investigation after the loss of their infant daughter (audio - Boudreau's story begins at 20:17). From The Moth. [Warning: No graphic details but this is a very harrowing story]
posted by Mchelly (14 comments total)

I've tried this in two browsers but neither seem to want to let me listen. Do I have to download it to hear it?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 10:56 AM on July 25, 2014

Peter, I managed to stream it online at tunein.
posted by kyp at 10:58 AM on July 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Is there a transcript?
posted by desjardins at 11:01 AM on July 25, 2014 [6 favorites]

This is sooo worth listening to. Riveting and harrowing. I missed the last couple of minutes of it when it aired the other day so I'm determined to sort out a way to hear what happened after!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 11:20 AM on July 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

In case anyone else is having difficulty finding it, this story is in the episode posted 7/22,"Love, Faith and Money"; I'd been looking for an episode with the Boudreau's name or "Treading Water" in it. D'oh!

kyp, thanks for the tunein link!
posted by alynnk at 11:23 AM on July 25, 2014

Desjardins, I was looking for but didn't find a transcript, but it linked to her blog, which although it doesn't tell The Story in one piece, is some really touching and worthwhile writing.
posted by Dashy at 11:47 AM on July 25, 2014

Might want to edit post to make it clear this is about the *death* of an infant.

Listened to this yesterday and for anyone with children it is extremely difficult indeed.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 11:50 AM on July 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

I just listened to this one yesterday. Harrowing stuff.
posted by the_royal_we at 12:10 PM on July 25, 2014

Thanks for help finding a way the listen to it! So now that I've heard the very end I'm still left wondering what happened to those evil people who did the evil thing. Holy shit. How do they sleep at night?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 12:12 PM on July 25, 2014

It took some digging, but I knew I recognized that name from somewhere.

From here :

I ran across an interesting blog about what appears to be a bully billion dollar insurance company using all its muscle to destroy a once valued employee who decided to go elsewhere. The company is called Federated Mutual Insurance of Owatonna, MN. The wife of the accused employee is the one, on her own, maintaining the blog, called "Fed Up With Federated": fedupwithfederated.blogspot.com . Apparently Federated has tried to get the blog shut down but to no avail. This reminds me of the Taubmansucks.com lawsuit.

In a nutshell, about two years ago, in October 2007, Chris Boudreau accepted a promotion with Federated that would require he move to Owatonna. Sadly, a week later, he and his wife Prinna lost their nine month old baby, Sophia, to SIDS. To compound the tragedy, in the month prior to being cleared by the autopsy results, when they should have been grieving, the family had to endure unfounded accusations from the local police they had killed their baby with a blow to the head. This began a string of other traumatic family events through which the couple sold their house and moved into temporary housing in Owatonna to facilitate looking for a new one.

A couple of months later, Prinna found out she was pregnant but medical complications were so severe she was forced to move into her parents' basement in Twin Cities for round-the-clock care while Chris commuted to Owatonna three days a week. Stress at work, the long commute, and a need to be closer to Prinna's parents caused Chris to make the tough decision to leave Federated where he had been for the last decade.

Chris gave his two weeks notice and prepared to tie up loose ends. Suddenly, he was told he was fired, escorted from the building, and a restraining order filed against him asking he turn over all Federated information in his possession or else “the entire force of Federated would reign down upon him.” Chris did so no questions asked and, as a result, was charged with stealing company secrets and arrested.

In August of 2008, ten armed and uniformed officers descended upon Prinna's parent's house and confiscated virtually all their electronics and storage devices, including Prinna's mother's work computer, video tapes, cameras and lenses-- taking with them all memories of Sophia. Federated then had Chris' new office raided and items confiscated, and petitioned the insurance commissioner to revoke his license pending the results of a hearing, thus leaving him jobless and unable to pursue his career.

Federated claims their investigation shows that Chris was in possession of all sorts of trade secrets on his computer. Yet, despite the very public claims of theft, Federated has yet to publicly document one single such instance. This might be another "he-said she-said" case except for the fact this is not the first time Federated has done this to an employee. In Blacksten v. Federated they tried the same malicious unproven bully tactics and ultimately lost, resulting in a malicious prosecution lawsuit the appellate court let proceed. Federated was quoted as saying "the most important thing was that it was time to play offense," and to make Blacksten sweat... "We don't care if we lose [the case against Blacksten]. We have more money than Blacksten and we are going to show him." oscn.net I'm told the "joke" around town is right out of the movie The Firm: "You work for Federated or you don't work."

Living in an area where pretty much everyone either works for Federated or who knows someone who does, the Boudreaus, who are now broke, are having all sorts of problems trying to counter the Federated lawyers. The press has been of little value as well, likely being careful not to upset a powerful local institution. So Prinna is left to her own devices, maintaining a small blog mostly just to keep her sanity while Federated has been making life for her family a living hell while trying to put her husband in jail for 45 (yes 45) years-- based on allegations they've refused to detail, let alone prove.

posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 12:40 PM on July 25, 2014 [16 favorites]

Oh good god. What on earth?
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 12:59 PM on July 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

Outcome of the criminal case (Spoiler: Boudreau pleaded guilty to theft of proprietary information worth an alleged $1.9 million, and to perjury, in exchange for having two other charges of theft; the perjury charge to be expunged if he served his probation properly.)

I got curious and actually ended up flipping through a bunch of documents related to the case.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:45 PM on July 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

Wouldn't surprise me at all if he was completely innocent and just pled (pleaded?) guilty to get it done and over with. What a life.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 3:09 PM on July 25, 2014

Hmmm, wait. Just read Eyebrows' link. Okay maybe not so completely innocent. Still, what a life.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 3:15 PM on July 25, 2014 [1 favorite]