Mass law enforcement misconduct news, June 15-21

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

State and local

The never-ending Karen Read saga

• “It took more than a year for a defense attorney to obtain a series of text messages from disgraced Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor — and now she says what they reveal could impact not just one case, but potentially many.” (NBC10 Boston)

• “Multiple anti-Asian slurs are among the racist text messages at the center of Karen Read’s new lawsuit against two Massachusetts police departments, raising new questions about bias in law enforcement. … Among those messages, [former Canton Police Sergeant Sean] Goode allegedly called Asian people ‘ch*nk T*rd,’ while [former Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael] Proctor allegedly claimed ‘All g**ks have shrubs between their legs.’” (NextShark)
• “A former Canton police sergeant who testified in the high-profile Karen Read murder trial has had his Massachusetts law enforcement certification suspended. The vote to suspend Sean Goode by the Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, Commission on [June 18] comes after derogatory text messages he allegedly sent were included in a civil lawsuit filed by Read against Canton police and Massachusetts State Police.” (NBC10 Boston)

More misconduct allegations

• “A Massachusetts Environmental Police officer has had his law enforcement certification suspended amid allegations he sexually assaulted his 15-year-old stepdaughter while she was living in his home. Travis Huard, 43, of Rutland, faces five counts of indecent assault and battery and one count of an unnatural act with a child.” (Telegram & Gazette)
• “A suspended Massachusetts State Police trooper being held in jail is now at the center of a criminal investigation involving the alleged sale of a decommissioned State Police service weapon, according to multiple sources who spoke to 25 Investigates. Trooper Michael Gagnon is being held at the Plymouth County Jail after being arrested twice in the span of six months: first in November for allegedly punching a 7-year-old in the face, and again in April on a wiretapping charge.” (Boston 25 News)

• “Massachusetts police oversight officials have stripped three former officers of their licenses to work in law enforcement, including a Gloucester man sentenced to four years in prison for possession of explicit images of children. … The decertified officers include former Springfield Police Officer Sean Cruz, former Gloucester Police Officer Alexander Aiello and former Lawrence Provisional Police Chief William Castro.” (MassLive)

I haven’t found any news reports about the following stories:

• The POST Commission on June 18 suspended the law-enforcement certification of former Carver police officer Derrick Ostiguy and former Massachusetts State Police trooper Ryan Hennessey, saying in each case only that the suspension was “in the best interest of the health, safety, or welfare of the public.”
• The POST Commission on June 18 said it declined to lift its suspension of former Middlesex County corrections officer Lakeisha Horsley “until the Commission issues a final decision disposing of all disciplinary matters.” The order says that the commission first suspended Horsley on September 18, 2025 “in light of evidence that [Horsley] engaged or may have engaged in criminal conduct.” It does not specify the nature of the alleged criminal conduct.
• The POST Commission said on June 18 that former Massachusetts State Police trooper Alan Gamache entered into an agreement to never again seek employment in law enforcement in Massachusetts. According to the agreement, “On multiple dates between June 2023 and September 2023, [Gamache], while on-duty and using his State Police-issued phone, sent inappropriate and sexually explicit messages to a female co-worker.” The POST Commission’s disciplinary database says that Gamache left the State Police in lieu of discipline. A department investigation determined that Gamache “sent multiple inappropriate text messages to a civilian employee,” “exposed himself via Facetime to a civilian employee,” and “violate[d] the MSP harassment policy by in-person conduct and text messages towards a civilian employee,” according to the database.

Federal

• “[W]ithin days, as a judge was still considering his appeal, [Sergio] Ayala Mejia was deported to Guatemala, leaving behind a partner, an infant, a toddler and a daughter with autism. It was the same day an immigration judge granted his motion to reopen his case and rescinded his deportation order from 2007.” (GBH)

Other News

The Boston Herald and Lowell Sun on June 17 published an opinion piece by Rick Pozniak, “a veteran public and crisis communications executive” who argues that public money should be spent on a massive statewide copaganda campaign to repair the reputation of Massachusetts police after years of egregious scandals.

According to Pozniak:

Massachusetts law enforcement agencies need a coordinated, statewide image-rebuilding campaign that uses every available communications platform. This needs to be a major marketing and communications blitz with well-crafted messaging that promotes the good and essential work police officers perform throughout the Commonwealth. 

This opinion piece reads more like a sales pitch for Pozniak’s services. But his idea, if put in effect, won’t work. That’s because the image problem Massachusetts police are facing has a basis in reality. Cops have, in fact, been doing lots of really bad stuff, like being extremely racist, costing the public tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits covering up exculpatory evidence in criminal cases, and covering for cops who commit crimes as serious as child molestation and alleged drunken vehicular homicide.

Pozniak writes:

Police officers are entrusted with extraordinary authority and must be held to the highest professional, legal and ethical standards. When officers violate that trust, they damage not only their own reputations but also the reputation of their department, profession and every honest officer in the state. Mass. police leaders have spent years responding to these scandals. What they have failed to do is aggressively tell the other side of the story. 

What stands out here is that Pozniak does not even pay lip service to the fact that police misconduct harms people nor does he suggest that more should be done to prevent it. It’s presented entirely as a PR problem for the “honest” cops, whom he apparently believes are the real victims.

But it really shouldn’t be on the public to hand over even more money to the police so they can pay a “crisis communications” firm to make a bunch of ads about how actually the police are good and you should just ignore all the bad stuff they’re doing. If police want a positive reputation, the best course of action would be to just stop doing bad things!

Worcester couple seeks new trial, citing federal judge’s gift to witness (Telegram & Gazette)

A Worcester couple serving decades in prison for sex trafficking is arguing they deserve a new trial after prosecutors disclosed that the federal judge who oversaw the case passed them a handwritten card and gift meant for the victim during sentencing.

Prosecutors – who were handed the gift from U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman during a courtroom break – have agreed the couple, Moises and Kiersten Soto, are entitled to be resentenced, but oppose a new trial.

Massachusetts expanding wrong-way driver detection technology (Boston 25 News)

Massachusetts is expanding its wrong-way detection system and committing tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. 25 Investigates wanted to know how well the detection system worked at its 16 locations as part of a pilot program that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation rolled out in 2022.

Through a public records request, 25 Investigates obtained new data showing how often drivers enter highways in the wrong direction — and how many turn around. A 25 Investigates analysis of MassDOT records found the state’s pilot program, launched in 2022, detected 294 wrong-way drivers.

Seth Moulton holds investments in military contractors while serving on the Armed Services Committee (WBUR)

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton has amassed holdings worth at least $1 million in startups tied to the defense sector while serving on the House Armed Services Committee.

Those private investments — not available to average investors — have risen sharply in value, according to congressional filings reviewed by WBUR.

They include the smart-ring company Oura, which calls the Defense Department its largest enterprise customer and now appears headed for a public offering, as well as a 3D-printing company that contracts with the federal government and defense companies. A third is an AI firm that partners with the U.S. Army.

“When asked to name [Maura] Healey’s signature achievement, 17 percent said ‘nothing’ while another 33 percent said that they didn’t know, didn’t have an answer, or refused to say.” #Massachusetts #mapoli

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— Andrew Quemere (@andrewqmr.bsky.social) June 16, 2026 at 2:16 PM

Kohen Wiley, a 1-year-old child, is dead after a Mississippi police officer shot into a car and killed him. Family members say his mother was holding him in the passenger seat. The officers were responding to a shoplifting call over a box of diapers at the Senatobia Walmart.

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— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman.bsky.social) June 16, 2026 at 1:09 PM

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