The latest alleged law enforcement misconduct in Mass, Feb. 1-14

Here are the media reports of alleged law enforcement misconduct in Massachusetts that I’ve tracked during the last two weeks.

First, here are the incidents involving federal law enforcement, including immigration agents:

• “A federal judge in Boston [on February 4] ordered the [Trump administration] not to immediately deport an Ecuadorian man - three months after another federal judge ordered ICE to immediately release his wife, whom they’d stuffed into the basement of their Burlington garrison after first shipping her off to a Texas prison. … The couple's lawyer … said his arrest was obviously retaliation for his wife’s release.” (Universal Hub)
• After a man said ICE agents arrested him in June even though he’s a lawful resident, took him to a cemetery, and beat him: “US Magistrate Judge Jennifer Boal held [a] hearing [on February 2] seeking an answer to [the] question — what happened to [Alejandro] Reyes Aguilar’s wallet? — but the hours’ long proceeding also served as a portal into the inner workings of an immigration arrest that had been sharply criticized by Lynn officials at the time, for the way it was carried out outside an elementary school during morning dropoff time.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
• “An Irishman living in the United States for more than 20 years has been held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials since being arrested [in] September. Originally from Glenmore, Co Kilkenny, Seamus Culleton is married to a US citizen and owns a plastering business in the Boston area. He was arrested on September 9th, 2025, and has been in an Ice detention facility in Texas for nearly five months, despite having no criminal record, ‘not even a parking ticket.’ In a phone interview from the facility, he said conditions there are ‘like a concentration camp, absolute hell.’” (Irish Times)
• “An immigration judge terminated removal proceedings against Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was detained for over a month [in 2025] as part of the Trump administration’s effort to target and deport international students and activists involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy, her lawyers said [February 9]. … The move comes after recently unsealed court documents showed the federal government didn’t have any evidence that Öztürk had been supporting terrorist activity when she was arrested, and that her visa revocation and arrest were because of an opinion article she wrote containing criticisms of Israel.” (CNN)
• “The number of people in Massachusetts contesting their detainments after masked men and women seize them off the streets has risen sharply over the past year. On [February 12], U.S. Attorney Leah Foley reported a staggering 12,000% surge in habeas corpus petitions filed in Massachusetts federal courts in 2025. These lawsuits allow individuals to challenge the legality of their detention. Foley said 850 cases were filed over the past year, compared with just seven in 2024.” (MassLive)
• “A federal judge [on February 13] ordered an immediate bond hearing for a woman whom ICE grabbed in October, moved from its Burlington garrison to prisons in Vermont, Texas and Louisiana and put on a plane to the Dominican Republic, then admitted it made a mistake and paid for her to fly back to Boston - where she was promptly re-arrested by ICE agents and locked in a room at the airport.” (Universal Hub)
• “A college student deported to Honduras while traveling for Thanksgiving in November must be returned to the United States within two weeks, a federal judge in Boston ruled [on February 13]. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns issued an order that required the return of 19-year-old Babson College freshman Any Lucia Lopez Belloza by the end of February.” (NBC10 Boston)

And here are the stories involving state and local law enforcement:

• “Dylan DaSilva, 32, a former Lowell Police officer who joined the force in 2023, abruptly resigned and The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission immediately suspended his state law enforcement certification on November 20th. Multiple sources allege that DaSilva was investigated for having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl. While sixteen is the legal age of consent in Massachusetts, the circumstances of their meeting have raised ethical alarms.” (Boston 25 News)
• “Lawyers for Matthew Farwell moved to dismiss the indictment against the former Stoughton police officer accused of killing Sandra Birchmore, arguing in a court filing that the indictment is vague and unspecific.” (MassLive)
• “A federal judge says a man arrested on gun charges by officers responding to a report of somebody shooting a gun outside Boston Medical Center can continue his excessive-force and negligence suit against Boston Police and several officers because cops shouldn't be breaking the arms of people who are complying with their demands as they're being arrested and because the man plausibly argued they did so in part because of a ‘blue wall of silence.’” (Universal Hub)
• “The state’s highest court heard arguments [February 4] focused on a 2024 drunken driving arrest that has raised questions about the use of body-worn cameras at sobriety checkpoints. … [The defendant’s lawyer] said the key issue for the court is to clarify how body-worn camera footage [interacts] with the state’s wiretapping laws, which prohibit one-party ‘secret’ recordings.” (MassLive)
• “Donovan Goparian was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Marie Martin, whose body was found in a burning car in Worcester in November 2015. On [February 4], his bid for a new trial took a key step forward when a judge set an evidentiary hearing for two days in May. … Goparian’s lawyer, Merritt Schnipper, first filed a motion for a new trial in February 2023[.] … Judge Daniel Wrenn … eventually denied the motion in May 2024. But Schnipper appealed the denial to the Supreme Judicial Court, which found that Wrenn should have allowed an evidentiary hearing after the defense brought forward evidence that prosecutors suppressed evidence implicating someone other than Goparian in the crime.” (MassLive)
• “A former Gloucester police officer has been sentenced to four years in prison in connection with possessing child sexual abuse material. Alexander Aiello, 34, was sentenced Jan. 23 in federal court after pleading guilty in October to one count of possession of CSAM.” (MassLive)
• “Suffolk County prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into a suspended state trooper who was allegedly drunk in December 2023 when he crashed into a van carrying a disabled man, who died the following month, according to officials and legal filings. The criminal investigation into State Police Sergeant Scott Quigley, more than two years after the head-on crash, was disclosed in a legal filing in a pending murder case that he investigated in Essex County.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
• Related to the previous story: “The timing of when prosecutors learned that a key State Police investigator in the Phan brothers’ murder case was allegedly under the influence of alcohol during a fatal on-duty crash emerged as a central issue during a hearing [on February 9] in Middlesex Superior Court. The issue surfaced as defense attorney William Dolan renewed his motion to dismiss the charges against his client, Channa Phan, stating that newly disclosed records and inconsistent statements from the State Police and prosecutors suggest the [Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office] may have been in possession of exculpatory information about Sgt. Scott Quigley for nearly two years.” (Lowell Sun)
• “The four members of the Massachusetts State Police facing charges in the death of Trooper Enrique Delgado-Garcia have been relieved of duty as they face the department's disciplinary process amid the allegations. Lt. Jennifer Penton and Troopers Edwin Rodriguez, David Montanez and Casey Lamonte have been indicted on grand jury charges of involuntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily injury, with Penton also facing a perjury charge. After the charges were announced on [February 9], the state's Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission ordered that they be suspended.” (NBC10 Boston)
• “A Brockton School Police officer must pay the schools $2,500 in restitution to resolve charges that he faked timecards. Darnell Campbell, 35, agreed to one year of pre-trial probation, according to Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz. … Prosecutors said Brockton Police brought the charges based on video evidence plus overtime and timecards filled out and signed by Campbell.” (Enterprise)
• “The chief justice of the state’s superior courts denied a motion filed by lawyers for North Andover police officer Kelsey Fitzsimmons seeking the recusal of Judge Kathleen McCarthy-Neyman, deeming it moot. In a brief endorsement on the motion, Justice Michael D. Ricciuti wrote, ‘The judge is scheduled to sit in another session during the period of the remaining pre-trial and trial of this case, and was not specially assigned to this matter, as the motion inaccurately assumes.’” (MassLive)
• “The head of the state public defenders organization is calling for the Massachusetts attorney general to appoint an independent investigator to probe an in-custody death at the Suffolk County House of Correction late [in 2025], saying there are inherent conflicts of interest with the current investigators.” … [The Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services] wants [the attorney general] to use the office’s authority ‘to ensure the appointment of an independent investigative body’ to examine the death of Shacoby Kenny, who died Dec. 8, hours after he became unresponsive following a fight with correctional officers at the facility, located in Boston and commonly called South Bay.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
• “The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department is investigating after a brawl involving several correction officers broke out at Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston [on February 7]. … In a statement, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department said no inmates or detainees were present at the time.” (WHDH)
• “Former Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor is fighting an effort by Norfolk County prosecutors to turn over more of his phone records to Karen Read’s civil defense lawyers, calling it an invasion of privacy. … ‘To the extent that there may be inappropriate messages that may be racist or homophobic, or may show a bias to others, those alleged messages are not relevant to the criminal prosecution of Ms. Read, who is ... a white, heterosexual female,’ the motion reads.” (MassLive)
• “Lawyers representing defendants whose cases were investigated by former Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor on [February 12] asked a judge for an additional 60 days to review the information pulled from his phones. Attorneys Rosemary Scapicchio and Joseph Krowski Jr., who between them represent four defendants facing murder charges in cases worked on by Proctor, told Judge Sharon Donatelle they were dealing with an ‘overwhelming’ amount of data from the devices.” (MassLive)
• “Three Boston police officers testified [on February 12] at a meeting of the city’s civilian watchdog agency, which recently issued its first subpoenas after long complaining about a lack of cooperation from the Boston Police Department. They were among nine department employees subpoenaed to appear [on February 12] before Boston’s Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, or OPAT; the other six didn’t show up. They had all been summonsed to appear for interviews about misconduct allegations against them.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
• “Two members of the Framingham Police Department are off the job following a monthslong internal affairs investigation into alleged misconduct in Sept. 2025. According to a department spokesperson, officer Kyle Pursell resigned from his position and officer Reece Black was terminated. … While no criminal charges have been filed, a department spokesperson said an internal affairs investigation found that both Pursell and Black had violated department rules and policy. Police would not say which policies were violated.” (WCVB)
• “A man who had his first-degree murder conviction for a fatal 2018 shooting in Mattapan overturned - after he’d spent five years in prison - [on February 12] filed a wrongful-conviction suit against the state. … In his suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, [Dewane] Tse said … he just happened to be driving in the wrong place at the wrong time … and he was wrongly singled out for involvement, even though there was no evidence the actual shooter was ever in his car.” (Universal Hub)

On a note related to that last story, I’ve previously written about how difficult it is for people who have been wrongfully convicted in Massachusetts to get compensation from the state, how state law severely limits that compensation, and how advocates want to change that.

“Ain’t Nobody Helping Me.” More Calls For Reforms To Massachusetts Wrongful Conviction Compensation Law

Legal advocates have long said the commonwealth’s system for compensating victims of wrongful convictions is unfair, and now they have a plan to fix it

The Mass DumpAndrew Quemere

More News

Beacon Hill transparency (WBUR):

Massachusetts Auditor Diana DiZoglio filed a lawsuit [on February 10} with the state’s high court to force the Legislature to hand over financial documents as part of an audit into lawmakers' businesses.

Voters handed DiZoglio the power to audit the Legislature in 2024. But Democrats who lead the House and Senate have refused to cooperate with her probe, arguing that any investigation into the body's inner workings violates separation-of-powers principles in the state constitution.

Parole rates on the rise (State House News Service):

Paroling rates have risen in Massachusetts, and the new chair of the Parole Board doesn’t see the increase as a negative.

“Our paroling rates are up, and we have a lot more lifers being released. We also, our staff — like I mentioned — we redistricted, so 35 to 50 is the average caseload,” Parole Board Chair Angelo Gomez said on [February 9].

“So it looks like we’re up about 3.5%. And that has to do with various factors: mandatory release, medical releases, paroling rates. So our numbers are going up, but it’s not a negative,” he added.

Governor Maura Healey spends millions on ChatGPT subscriptions (MassLive):

[On February 12, Sam] Altman appeared via video to help [Governor Maura] Healey announce that Massachusetts will be the first state to roll out OpenAI’s ChatGPT software to all 40,000 employees of the executive branch of government. …

The state signed a three-year agreement with the company … and will pay $108 per employee per year, totaling about $4.3 million annually.

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Anyway, that’s all for now.