The latest alleged law enforcement misconduct in Mass
As I mentioned at the beginning of June, I’ve started aggregating stories of alleged Massachusetts law enforcement misconduct that have been reported in the media. I have a more substantial newsletter coming out later this week, but the law enforcement misconduct stories have been piling up during the last three weeks, so I wanted to send out the latest update today.
I missed this one during my last post: “A construction worker who was arrested [June 4] by federal agents in Lynn, Massachusetts, was released a day later, and he alleges he was assaulted when he was taken into custody. … [Alejandro] Reyes told Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra the agents took him to Pine Grove Cemetery — not a detention center — and beat him several times in a dark area. He showed wounds all over his body that he said he suffered in the ordeal.” (NBC10 Boston)
“A federal judge ruled [on June 10] ICE cannot make a man they pulled out of a vehicle at a Framingham stoplight wear a GPS monitor or be subject to unannounced visits by ICE agents, a curfew and travel restrictions after an immigration judge had earlier released him on bond and then closed his detention case. US District Court Judge Myong Joun said that given that the immigration judge in the case had ‘closed the case due to a failure to prosecute,’ ICE has no right to impose restrictions on Jose Daniel Orellana Juarez, 25, as he fights for asylum here out of fear of what would happen to him if he were returned to his native Guatemala.” (Universal Hub)
“Town officials in Burlington have issued a formal demand to inspect a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office being used as a detention center amid allegations that conditions at the facility are unsafe. … [E]arlier this month, the select board said the facility ‘may now be operating in a capacity inconsistent with the zoning approvals previously granted’ in its current use as a detention facility.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
“A sergeant with the Dedham Police Department received a $1.3 million settlement in a lawsuit alleging [gender] discrimination and retaliation. Marissa Holland spoke … about her case, which originated from a promotion decision in 2020.” (NBC10 Boston)
“A Chelmsford mother is questioning how her town’s police department handled an investigation after a driver struck her teen daughter in the head with his truck’s side-view mirror. Following questions from the NBC10 Boston Investigators, the driver will be summoned to court to answer to possible criminal charges tied to the incident. … [The driver was] a local business owner and the brother of a Chelmsford police officer.” (NBC10 Boston)
“Retirement with two pending disciplinary counts and a lifetime ban from police work in Massachusetts does not preclude [former Boston police officer Kirk] Merricks from receiving his $78,000-per-year pension.” (MassLive)
“Former Hopkinton Deputy Police Chief John ‘Jay’ Porter will spend the next seven years prison after a Middlesex Superior Court judge on Monday, June 23, sentenced him for child rape. … Porter was convicted of raping a young girl about 20 years ago. The victim … was a ninth and 10th grader at Hopkinton High School when the assaults occurred, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. Porter was the school resource officer at the time.” (MetroWest Daily News)
“The Suffolk DA’s office has dropped charges against a Dorchester man arrested by a Boston Police officer who reportedly violated department rules in a high-speed chase that killed three teenagers driving a suspected stolen car. … In [an] investigation, the BPD’s Bureau of Professional Standards found [officer Triston] Champagnie had violated six department rules, including one that requires officers to be truthful in their reports, [the Dorchester man’s attorney] wrote in his motion earlier [in June].” (Boston Herald)
“The former Stoughton police officer accused of killing a woman prosecutors say he had been sexually abusing since she was a teenager is seeking to add an out-of-state lawyer who is an expert in death penalty cases to his defense team. Matthew Farwell is charged with a single count of killing a witness or victim in connection with the death of Sandra Birchmore.” (MassLive)
“Medford’s mayor is reacting to an NBC10 Boston investigation that raised questions about a police sergeant using a family member’s disability parking placard while on duty at the police department headquarters. NBC10 Boston published the report … revealing undercover video of Sgt. Barbara DeCristofaro parking in an accessible space with a placard hanging in the rear-view mirror.” (NBC10 Boston)
“A Lawrence police detective [Thomas Cuddy] was placed on administrative leave due to money missing from a police relief fund before he died unexpectedly on June 17, according to Lawrence Police Chief Maurice Aguilar.” (MassLive)
“A not-guilty plea was entered in the case of a Fall River police officer accused of breaking into a home while drunk to search for someone who did not live there. David Silvia appeared … at Fall River District Court on June 26 to be arraigned on charges that include breaking and entering.” (Herald News)
“A Bellingham police sergeant is on paid administrative leave as he faces an OUI and gun charge in connection with a crash in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Bellingham Police Chief Kenneth Fitzgerald said in a statement on Thursday [June 26]. On Thursday morning, the department was notified that Sgt. Kevin Heenan, while off-duty, struck a parked car with his own vehicle and was arrested by Woonsocket police, the statement read.” (MassLive)
“A [New Bedford] police sergeant [Samuel Ortega], reprimanded for sexual harassment in mid-2023, was found last year to have committed further sexual harassment. He went on paid administrative leave and then medical leave, and retired without discipline in November, months after the investigation’s findings were submitted to the police chief.” (New Bedford Light)
“A Montague police officer has been arrested and now faces multiple assault and battery charges. Court documents obtained by 22News reveal that Shawna Williams of Deerfield is accused of assaulting a childhood friend, identified as an adult woman.” (WWLP) “Additionally, Williams has had her state firearms license suspended as a result of the arrest.” (Greenfield Recorder)
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Anyway, that’s all for now.