Mass law enforcement misconduct news, Apr. 6-12

Allegations include DNA linking officer to murder, aggressive police union fundraising, pandemic fraud, 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 latest on the State Police cover-up

“A Massachusetts State Police sergeant will be arraigned on a motor vehicle homicide charge [this] week, more than two years after he allegedly drunkenly crashed a cruiser into a wheelchair van. Sgt. Scott Quigley will go before a judge the afternoon of April 15 at Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, according to court records.” (Boston Herald)
“[Massachusetts State Police] Trooper Constantino DeGisi was placed on restrictive duty as of March 18 and has been assigned to the Tow Compliance Unit, according to a State Police spokesperson. DeGisi allegedly went with Sgt. Scott Quigley at a bar and pizzeria called Teresa’s in Woburn hours before Quigley crashed his cruiser into a wheelchair van.” (Boston Herald)

The never-ending Karen Read saga

“Information from fired Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor’s phone dating back to 2013 shows the fired investigator sent ‘shockingly misogynistic, racist, and homophobic’ messages to his friends, lawyers for Karen Read claimed in a court filing on [April 2].” (MassLive)
“Lawyers for Karen Read are asking a judge to force the town of Canton to provide documents regarding its ongoing investigation into a police sergeant who has been on leave for months. … The sergeant, Sean Goode, took the 911 call reporting [Read’s boyfriend, Boston Police officer John] O’Keefe had been found in the snow outside a fellow Boston officer’s Canton home in January 2022, and was one of the first officers at the scene. The department put him on leave more than three years later, in November 2025.” (MassLive)
“Massachusetts State Police Lt. Brian Tully, who oversaw the investigation into John O'Keefe’s death and testified at Karen Read’s trial, has retired. … State police said in November that he had failed to supervise or discipline unit members ‘who were involved with inappropriate text messages relative to an ongoing homicide investigation.’” (NBC10 Boston)

More misconduct allegations

“A former Lowell police officer [Dylan DaSilva], who resigned amidst allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a teenager, is facing a criminal charge for allegedly abusing his access to restricted law enforcement data.” (Boston 25 News)

“A 25 Investigates push for transparency regarding former Lowell Police Officer Dylan DaSilva took another twist … as the department released twenty pages of internal documents that contain more redactions than legible text. While Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s office ordered the release of all records requested by 25 Investigates except body camera video in late March, the documents were turned over with more than 120 redactions and entire paragraphs blacked out.” (Boston 25 News)

“New DNA evidence ties the former [Stoughton] police officer [Matthew Farwell] accused of killing Sandra Birchmore and staging it as a suicide to the alleged murder weapon, federal prosecutors said [April 6], arguing he shouldn’t be released before trial.” (NBC10 Boston)
“Billerica police are investigating ‘aggressive and possibly threatening tactics’ used by solicitors asking for donations on behalf of the Billerica Police Union, according to the police department.” (MassLive)
“After a judge ruled in a Mass Dump lawsuit that Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan’s office cannot block the public from seeing the names and case numbers of police officers who have been charged with crimes, prosecutors rejected a settlement offer that would have saved taxpayers more than $12,000 in legal fees in exchange for adopting a police misconduct transparency policy.” (Mass Dump)

“Chicopee police have been added as defendants in a legal dispute over a deadly crash that happened after a high-speed chase in March 2023, according to court records.” (Republican)
“Stephenson King Jr.’s yearslong struggle with mental illness worsened in the days leading to his death at the hands of a Boston police officer, according to his family. King Jr., 39, was shot and killed in a confrontation with police while trying to escape in a vehicle he allegedly stole on March 11. The officer who shot him, Nicholas O’Malley, … has been charged with manslaughter.” (WBUR)
“Rumors that a New Bedford judge [Douglas Darnbrough] had a sexual relationship with a prosecutor [Karlyn Butler] while trying her cases have been dismissed as not credible by an investigator after an inquiry ordered by Massachusetts’ highest court.” (Ocean State Media)
“Kevin Scott Kelley, the 46-year-old former chief of the Adams Police Department, is accused of receiving nearly $20,000 after submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims, the Berkshire County District Attorney's Office said.” (NBC10 Boston)
“A retired Massachusetts State Police sergeant has agreed to plead guilty in connection with an alleged scheme to fraudulently obtain a federal pandemic relief loan, prosecutors announced [April 10]. Damian Halfkenny, 54, of Boston, was charged with one count of wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley’s office said.” (Boston.com)

Federal law enforcement

“A federal judge blocked the [Department of Homeland Security’s] decision to end a temporary status that has protected more than 5,000 Ethiopians from deportation and allowed them to live and work in the United States. In his [April 8] decision, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy from Massachusetts said the Trump administration terminated the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) ‘without regard for the process delineated by Congress.’” (Associated Press)
“A federal judge [on April 7] ordered ICE to release a man it's had locked in the Plymouth County jail for more than six months, which is the limit the Supreme Court has set for keeping somebody in a cell to await deportation ‘in the reasonably foreseeable future.’” (Universal Hub)

Reminder: As I’ve previously reported, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has dismissed the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office’s cooperation with ICE as a “county issue” that she doesn’t intend to take action against.

Other News

Via Bill Shaner, check out these wild comments by Kevin Reddington, attorney for David Montanez, one of the Massachusetts State Police troopers charged with manslaughter in the death of a trainee who died after allegedly being hit in the head during two boxing training sessions:

“Put yourself in a cruiser at three o’clock in the morning on the side of a road, in the middle of a downpour, with a 300 pound guy, left out of his mind with a knife coming at you,” [Reddington] said. “And they tell me that this type of training is excessive or dangerous. It is not.”

“And the only thing I can comment on, if that occurred to me, and I know you’re all familiar with the movie, with Jack Nicholson, and he was the Marine. And he said, you need me on that wall. You want me on that wall to protect the people. You cannot protect yourselves.”

“And it’s either George Orwell or Winston Churchill that said, people are able to sleep secure at night in their beds because there are men and women who are able to defend themselves against people that would do violence on them. And that’s what you have right here. This is open season on police officers. You can see it every day.”

The reference to Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men—a colonel who gets a marine killed in a hazing ritual and then angrily defends his actions in a narcissistic rant—is particularly on the nose and particularly unhinged. Nicholson was the bad guy in that movie!

North Andover Police Department to use body-worn cameras after Kelsey Fitzsimmons acquittal (MassLive)

The North Andover Police Department said [April 6] that it is “working actively” to implement body-worn cameras for officers, a move that comes on the heels of former officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons’ acquittal in a case that may have played out differently if the town had invested in such cameras.

Police Chief Charles Grey blamed “startup and program maintenance costs” for keeping body-worn cameras “out of reach” for the department. But in a statement, he said the implementation of cameras was a priority for both him and the town’s Select Board and would be a focus for the department’s budget.

Police departments do not want body cameras so they can hold officers accountable for misconduct and be more transparent to the public—they want them to win criminal cases, defend themselves against lawsuits, and create propaganda videos.

Former Suffolk County DA Rachael Rollins running to get her old job back (Boston Globe; paywalled)

Two days after pulling papers to run to regain her old job as Suffolk district attorney, Rachael Rollins on [April 10] came out swinging against her critics and political naysayers on social media.

Rollins, who swiftly rose to US attorney for Massachusetts then just as quickly plummeted amid an ethics scandal three years ago, took direct aim at criticism about her entry into the DA’s race from former district attorney Dan Conley, and an indirect swipe at Kevin R. Hayden, the current district attorney.

Plymouth passes bylaw limiting police cooperation with ICE (Plymouth Independent)

[On April 11,] Plymouth joined other cities and towns, including Boston, Lawrence, Cambridge, Somerville, Springfield, Northampton and Amherst in passing a bylaw restricting the cooperation of police and other town employees with ICE.

State auditor’s lawsuit against attorney general heads to court (CommonWealth Beacon)

The Supreme Judicial Court will hear oral arguments [in May] in a lawsuit [Massachusetts State Auditor Diana] DiZoglio filed against House and Senate leaders over their refusal to participate in her audit, a case that quickly morphed into a legal debate about whether she even had the authority to sue without buy-in from [Attorney General Andrea] Campbell’s office.

Justices will be asked to settle questions about DiZoglio’s legal standing to bring the suit. It’s less clear if they will also wade into the underlying constitutional debate over her office’s ability to probe the workings of another branch of government.

As I’ve written before, the situation with the state auditor reminds me of how the Massachusetts supervisor of public records can’t going to court to enforce her decisions and must rely on the Attorney General’s Office. It’s something I think needs to change so that Massachusetts has a stronger Public Records Law that doesn’t rely almost entirely on media organizations and people like me suing government agencies to uphold it.

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