Mass law enforcement misconduct news, Apr. 20-26
Alleged child rape, domestic violence, racist text messages, and more
Here are the media reports of alleged law enforcement misconduct in Massachusetts that I’ve tracked during the last week.
State and local law enforcement
The never-ending Karen Read saga
- “Michael Proctor’s crass texts about Karen Read catapulted him to national infamy, but attorneys on some of the former Massachusetts State Police trooper’s other criminal cases say his ‘vulgar, disgusting’ messages didn’t stop there. … [According to one attorney,] ‘He’ll say things like, ‘It’s kill an n-word in Canton day.’’” (Boston.com)
- “A federal judge won’t let former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor ‘refresh his memory’ ahead of his scheduled deposition in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Karen Read.” (MassLive)
More misconduct allegations
- “The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission has suspended the certification of two former Framingham police officers who were found by a department investigation to have unlawfully possessed cocaine. The POST Commission … issued suspension orders on April 16 for former officer Reece Black and former detective Kyle Pursell.” (Mass Dump) 22
Andrew Quemere
- “The state’s law enforcement oversight agency has permanently decertified a former Brandeis University police officer [Kimberly Carter] whose alleged negligence is the subject of a pending lawsuit filed by the family of a student who died on campus in December 2023, records show.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
- “The state’s police oversight board has revoked the certification of a retired State Police captain [Brian Gladu] who in 2023 was accused of indecently assaulting a civilian while on duty in West Springfield, records show.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
- Another former Massachusetts State Police trooper was decertified: “[Kristopher] Carr pleaded guilty [in 2025] to causing a 2021 car crash in Boston that resulted in the death of a 51-year-old motorcyclist from Winthrop.” (MassLive)
- “Prosecutors dropped charges [in 2025] against a Chelsea police officer [Michael Villanueva] who had been charged in connection with a domestic violence incident, court records show. … Villanueva asked for a hearing on his suspension in November 2025, according to records from the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission. But neither the officer nor his lawyer appeared for a hearing scheduled by the commission, according to a Feb. 19 order.” (MassLive)
- “A Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, police officer was suspended and is now facing criminal charges after he allegedly assaulted his wife and pointed a gun at her, according to a police report. According to the Millbury police report, Shawn Valliere, 53, is accused of abusing alcohol, using cocaine, pointing a gun at his wife, and later putting a gun in his mouth and asking his wife to pull the trigger.” (WCVB)
- “New data from [former Stoughton police officer] Matthew Farwell’s cellphone underscores the fact that he poses a risk of fleeing Massachusetts or obstructing his pending criminal case, federal prosecutors argued in a court filing. … Farwell is accused of killing Sandra Birchmore, a woman prosecutors say he began sexually abusing when she was 15, to prevent her from disclosing information that could have implicated him in federal crimes. … Specifically, they say, Farwell searched for pornography that ‘suggests that he maintains a sexual interest in teenage girls,’ even after Birchmore died.” (MassLive)
- “A Massachusetts State Police trooper accused of assaulting a woman several times over the course of a turbulent relationship was indicted by a grand jury [in late March], records show. Wendel Seney, 32, of Roslindale, is facing felony charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and strangulation or suffocation.” (MassLive)
- “The officer who fatally shot Biagio Kauvil has been cleared of criminal charges, but community members have begun circulating petitions online seeking accountability from the town police department. One petition on Change.org, which is directed to Hinsdale Town Administrator Robert Graves, calls for the termination of Hinsdale Police Chief Shawn Boyne and Sgt. Dominick Crupi. Both were involved in the January shooting, but neither fired the fatal shot.” (Berkshire Eagle; paywalled)
- “An officer with the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department [Richard Kielczweski] has been charged with numerous human trafficking and child rape violations, the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office announced [on April 24].” (NBC10 Boston)
Federal law enforcement
- I missed this story last week: “ICE is blaming ‘an administrative oversight’ for the way it failed to comply with a judge’s April 14 deadline to either release an immigrant it had thrown in a cell or to get him before an immigration judge for a bond hearing. US District Court Judge Leo Sorokin now wants a more detailed answer than that: He is demanding ICE explain what it's going to do to ensure it ‘does not in the future detain persons in disregard of binding and unambiguous federal-court orders.’” (Universal Hub)
- “Seven Allston Car Wash employees who were detained by federal immigration officials last year have filed a federal complaint, the first step toward a potential lawsuit, seeking financial damages from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over their arrest and treatment.” (GBH)
Other News
ICE intimidation keeps survivors of domestic violence from court (MassLive)
Survivors of domestic violence in Massachusetts’ immigrant communities have increasingly faced a stark choice: stay with the man who is hurting them, or seek a restraining order at a courthouse where immigration officers could be waiting.
For many, the abuse may feel like the safer bet.
One year of Bearing Witness protests outside Burlington ICE office (Lowell Sun)
A small, grassy area across from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Burlington was packed with people [the morning of April 22] as they recognized the one-year anniversary of Bearing Witness protests.
When Jared and Laurie Berezin started “Bearing Witness” to what they saw as injustice being perpetrated by ICE, the protest consisted of just the two of them.
Now the Wednesday protests frequently draw crowds in the hundreds, including [last] week when the Berezins and the crowd of demonstrators celebrated one full year of standouts.
Protesters call on law-enforcement vehicle manufacturer Lenco to stop working with ICE (Berkshire Eagle; paywalled)
Local activists took to the streets on [April 22] to call on Lenco Industries to consider refusing further contracts from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Nearly 20 demonstrators gathered at the entrance to Betnr Industrial Drive, where Lenco produces armored vehicles, including its flagship BearCat. The demonstration, organized by Berkshire County Veterans for Peace, also drew participants from other political advocacy organizations throughout the Berkshires.
State auditor says attorney general is violating separation of powers (State House News Service)
Constitutional separation of power issues have been central to the dispute over State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s attempt to audit the Legislature, but now the auditor is the one raising concerns about one branch of government intruding upon another.
If Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s motion to strike the lawsuit DiZoglio brought against top Beacon Hill Democrats in February is allowed, it would prevent the judiciary from resolving the stalemate and substitute the judgement of the attorney general, part of the executive branch, a brief that DiZoglio’s office submitted to the Supreme Judicial Court [on April 22] argued. The high court will hear arguments on the motion to strike May 6.
Rep. Jake Auchincloss says he uses generative “AI” for childrens’ bedtime stories (NOTUS)
This NOTUS article about members of congress using generative “AI” has some quotes from Massachusetts’ Jake Auchincloss:
Rep. Jake Auchincloss, an early adopter of the technology, also read a speech written by AI on the House floor in 2023 to show the capabilities of AI models.
Auchincloss told NOTUS that AI has taken on a bigger role since then in his work and in his personal life. His office built a “JDA bot” (per the congressman’s initials), that has been fed every public writing that Auchincloss has ever produced to keep track of the congressman’s positions, though he doesn’t use it to write his speeches.
He also said that AI reads his kids bedtime stories.
“I have three little kids, and I’ll do prompt engineering for a good story. I’m like, ‘I want it to be for a 6-year-old, and I want it to be about helicopters,’” Auchincloss, who is 38, said. “They love it, they’ll tell me, ‘Dad, tell us a story from your phone!’”
That might be the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard. If you are outsourcing story time with children to a computer program, you are dead inside—an empty husk. This man is a congressperson, and he thinks he’s “prompt engineering” because he asks a computer program to generate slop for his kids instead of using his imagination to tell them stories or just reading them goddamn books. If your kid is interested in helicopters, take them to the library and teach them how to look up information! I was able to find tons of books about helicopters with a quick search of my local library network.
The article doesn’t mention it, but according to Open Secrets, one of Auchincloss’s top donor groups is employees of Palantir, an “AI” company.
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