Mass law enforcement misconduct news, Apr. 27-May 3

State Police cost taxpayers millions in lawsuits, Natick officer accused of strangling fiancée, ICE agent’s name revealed, 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

State Police scandals continue to mount

STATE POLICE RACK UP NEARLY $34 MILLION IN CIVIL SETTLEMENTS AND JUDGMENTS: “A 25 Investigates analysis of data from the state comptroller’s office reveals that taxpayers footed the bill for nearly $16 million in settlements and judgments over the last five years. That figure does not include the $11 million gender discrimination judgment or a $6.8 million award to a group of female and minority troopers who won a discrimination suit weeks earlier. Both of those cases are currently under appeal.” (Boston 25 News)

“Middlesex County prosecutors have turned over information in more than 100 criminal cases about an ongoing probe into how authorities handled a Massachusetts State Police sergeant’s involvement in a 2023 fatal crash, according to court filings, representing a dramatic escalation of the scope of the scandal. Critical details about the December 2023 crash involving Sgt. Scott Quigley — namely that testing showed he had a blood-alcohol content above the legal limit when he crashed — remained almost entirely secret until this January.” (MassLive)
“Now, at least three of Quigley’s colleagues have faced discipline as authorities continue to unravel how the information about the crash remained hidden for years.” They include Lieutenant Anthony Delucia, Sergeant Mark Delaney, and trooper Constantino Degisi. (MassLive)
“A suspended Massachusetts State Police trooper [Terence Kent] accused of pressuring a man to perform a sex act on him in exchange for agreeing not to tow his car will face a jury in June.” (MassLive)

The never-ending saga of Karen Read

“A judge has allowed Karen Read to use materials from Michael Proctor’s cellphone in an upcoming lawsuit after her lawyers argued the ex-trooper’s ‘staggeringly anti-woman, racist, homophobic, [and] antisemitic’ texts were key to Read’s new claims against Canton and Massachusetts State Police.” (Boston.com)

More misconduct allegations

I previously overlooked this story from April: “The Supreme Judicial Court has ordered the suppression of evidence obtained during a traffic stop that occurred 24 hours after a [Boston] police officer witnessed a traffic infraction.” (Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly)

“The City of Boston has agreed to an $850,000 settlement in a federal lawsuit brought by four protesters who alleged they were beaten and pepper-sprayed by Boston police officers during a 2020 demonstration. … The lawsuit was filed in June 2021, alleging ‘excessive and unnecessary force’ by Officers Michael Burke, Edward Nolan, and Michael McManus.” (Boston.com)
“A Natick police officer is on paid leave after he allegedly suffocated his fiancée with a pillow during an argument at their home in Holliston [on April 23], according to court records. Jackson Dwyer, 28, pleaded not guilty [on April 27] to charges of assault and battery on a family or household member, strangulation or suffocation, and witness intimidation.” (Boston.com)
“Nearly five months after an incarcerated man died following a fight with correctional officers at the Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston, state medical authorities have yet to issue a cause of death, frustrating loved ones and advocates alike. Shacoby Kenny, a 32-year-old Springfield native with a history of mental health problems, died on Dec. 8 following a few moments of chaotic violence, at least some of which were captured on video surveillance at the facility, commonly called South Bay.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
“Richard Kielczweski gifted leftover toys from Toys for Tots to his alleged rape victims, prosecutors said during a hearing [on April 30] to determine whether the Suffolk County Sheriff’s deputy should be released before trial. Kielczweski … was deemed dangerous by Judge Shelby Smith following the hearing and held without bail.” (Boston Herald)
“The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has changed Sandra Birchmore’s official manner of death from suicide to undetermined. … Her manner of death was originally ruled a suicide, but friends and family rejected this conclusion and pushed for further investigation. Private investigators hired by Birchmore’s estate ruled the manner of death a homicide, and a federal probe led to charges against former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell.” (NBC10 Boston)

Federal law enforcement

“A federal judge in Boston [on April 28] ordered the [Trump administration] to release a Brockton man by 6 p.m. - nearly a year after ICE threw him in a cell in the Plymouth County jail based on a threat he doesn’t actually pose to the community as alleged by an ICE report that misread the records of Brockton District Court and ignored testimony and evidence from his wife and church.” (Universal Hub)
“Fourteen green card holders are suing the federal government over being denied the ability to naturalize as U.S. citizens, despite meeting all the requirements. They want a judge to intervene and order government officials to schedule their naturalization ceremonies. All of the individuals are permanent residents, originally from Haiti, Venezuela and Côte d’Ivoire.” (GBH)
“The name of a [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officer accused of strangling a man in Fitchburg during an immigration arrest has been revealed in court, despite the federal government’s attempts to keep his identity a secret. The officer’s name is David Jackson, an acting supervisory detention and deportation officer, according to court documents.” (MassLive)
“A Boston federal judge [on April 29] ordered ICE to free a Jamaican national - who has been in the US since he was 9 - by the end of [April 30], because it’s failed to provide a shred of evidence it’s really about to put him on a plane back to his homeland, let alone, as required by its own regulations, explain to him why it’s so vital he be deported now.” (Universal Hub)

Other News

Report finds local police in Massachusetts are collaborating with ICE (GBH)

Citizens for Juvenile Justice submitted more than 90 public records requests to law enforcement on all levels locally, finding many police departments either expressly allow collaboration with ICE or don’t have a policy regarding working with the agency.

Records requests to 62 police departments statewide found 28 had policies allowing or requiring collaboration with ICE. Another 24 didn’t have policies or didn’t respond. Only three had rules restricting communicating with ICE.

More than 200 immigrants have been detained directly at police stations, according to the report.

Burlington police chief whines about protests outside ICE facility (Lowell Sun)

A Massachusetts police chief has had enough with protesters of a local ICE office, saying the near-daily demonstrations are straining his department’s public safety resources.

Burlington Police Chief Thomas Browne is speaking out after the arrests of 11 protesters, who he says “refused to move” from the facility’s front entrance in an “act of civil disobedience.”

Who cares what Chief Browne thinks? If he’s so upset about this, he can just stop helping ICE.

SJC weighs in on ballot questions about legislative stipends and public records (MassLive)

The Supreme Judicial Court on [May 27] raised serious constitutional doubts about a legislative stipends ballot question and left unresolved key issues around a public records proposal, setting up potential legal fights ahead — even as both campaigns say they intend to keep moving toward the November ballot. …

The opinions are non-binding but carry implications for the two initiatives, which seek to reshape Beacon Hill: one by tying legislative stipends to internal procedural requirements, the other by subjecting the Legislature and governor’s office to the public records law.

Some state lawmakers want to curb ballot questions (State House News Service)

Campaigns backing initiative petitions must meet signature collection requirements to move their proposal forward. …

[Representative Michael] Day and other lawmakers argue that paid signature collectors undermine the intention behind the collection requirement. They say it’s meant to be a high enough threshold to show there is enough support among voters for a proposed law that circumvents the normal legislative process.

To quote Miles Grant from Bluesky: “With MA’s Democratic supermajority passing hardly any bills anymore, activists have turned to ballot initiatives[.] So now, to make absolutely clear they hate voters, Dems are trying to limit ballot initiatives[.]”

For-profit company backed by Trump admin hopes to open fake “AI” school in Boston (Boston Globe; paywalled)

Welcome to Alpha School, which is pushing to open this fall in Boston. Championed by the Trump administration, the controversial but growing network of schools has 500 students across a dozen locations from California to New York.

The private, for-profit schools claim children can “crush academics” in just two hours a day with AI, freeing up more time for physical education, arts workshops, science projects, and more.

Alpha has pitched a kindergarten through eighth grade school for 25 students on Cambridge Street in Beacon Hill, with the goal of doubling to 50 for the following year. The company is also planning a second location somewhere in the suburbs, according to the company.

This is a blatant scam. Generative “AI” programs cannot replace teachers nor can they, by virtue of being computer programs, somehow magically cause children to learn faster. People who deprive children of the right to an education by replacing teachers with these bullshit machines should be charged with crimes against humanity and sent to the Hague.

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