The latest alleged law enforcement misconduct in Mass, Mar. 2-8

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

Stories involving federal law enforcement

• “A Haitian man confined at an Arizona immigration detention center for months died at a hospital [March 2] after a tooth infection was left untreated, the man’s brother said. Emmanuel Damas, 56, had been living in Massachusetts and was seeking asylum prior to his detention, according to U.S. Sen. Ed Markey. Damas told medical personnel at the Florence Correctional Center that he had a toothache in mid-February, but he was not sent to a dentist, according to his brother Presly Nelson.” (WBUR)
• “A Chelsea family is suing the federal government over a Mother’s Day arrest in which federal immigration agents shattered a car window and detained the family patriarch. ‘This is a case that is reflecting ICE’s increasingly aggressive immigration tactics and something that we’re seeing across the country,’ said attorney Mirian Albert with the group Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is representing Daniel Flores Martinez, his wife, and three children in the suit.” (GBH)
• “A federal district court judge in Massachusetts dismissed the case of a Babson College student mistakenly deported by ICE in November. However, the ruling came a day after lawyers for Any Lucia Lopez Belloza documented what they called ‘a trap’ in which ICE offered to bring her back only to re-deport her.” (GBH)

Stories involving state and local law enforcement

The latest on the State Police cover-up

• “A new court filing from the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office has revealed that a State Police supervisor may have known for nearly two years that a fellow detective was allegedly driving drunk during a 2023 crash that later resulted in a fatality. … Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office had previously stated that none of her employees were aware of specific details regarding Sgt. Scott Quigley’s December 12, 2023, crash in Woburn. However, in a notice filed March 2, 2026, the Commonwealth revealed that an ‘unsworn, non-attorney employee’ recently came forward with a different story.” (Boston 25 News)

• “The Phan brothers are accused of plotting to kill Tyrone Phet on Sept. 14, 2020. … Their trial is now set for the end of April. But that could change, given the alarming allegations brought to light only last month, Judge Christopher Barry-Smith said [on March 6]. Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Scott Quigley, the trooper leading the investigation on the Phan case, may have had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit when he collided head-on with a medical transport van in Woburn in December 2023.” (MassLive)

More misconduct allegations

• “A former police sergeant in Mansfield, Massachusetts, [Jeffrey Bombard] made sexual comments and engaged in inappropriate behavior with female high school interns participating in a law enforcement recruitment program, according to an internal affairs investigation. … Bombard resigned from the Mansfield Police Department [in 2025] while awaiting a disciplinary decision from the police chief, an attorney for the town confirmed.” (NBC10 Boston)

• “A federal judge [on March 3] rejected requests by Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins to throw out the two extortion charges against him, saying he'll have to make his case to a jury.” (Universal Hub)
• “A Massachusetts police officer faced arraignment on [March 4] in connection with a high-speed, head-on crash that seriously injured another driver in January, officials said. Marshfield Officer Richard Perry is facing charges of operating under the influence resulting in serious bodily injury, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, marked lanes violations and speeding. … Perry’s attorney said they attempted to take responsibility by making a plea offer to prosecutors, which was not initially accepted.” (WCVB)
• “Already devastated by the 23-year-old’s death, [Alfredo] Alves’ family was shocked and angered to learn the driver of the vehicle had been identified as off-duty Hanover Police Officer Thomas Hayes, who had allegedly spent the hours before the crash drinking at a Brockton strip club, according to the report. … [O]n Feb. 19, the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission suspended Hayes’ law enforcement certification effective immediately, banning him from performing any police duties and functions.” (Enterprise; paywalled)
• “A federal judge heard arguments [March 5] on a motion to dismiss the charges against a former Stoughton police officer accused of killing a woman he began sexually abusing when she was a teen. … Joanne Daley, a federal public defender representing [Matthew] Farwell, argued … that the indictment against him is defective in two ways. The document does not indicate that [Sandra] Birchmore intended to communicate with a federal officer, a key element of the crime, and does not provide enough detail about that possible message, she said.” (MassLive)
• “The Massachusetts police oversight board has decertified four former State Police troopers and two municipal officers, revoking their licenses to work in law enforcement over a range of misconduct both on and off the job. Among the troopers decertified by the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, or POST, were two men sentenced to prison for awarding commercial driver’s licenses to unqualified applicants.” (MassLive)
• “A federal judge [on March 5] dismissed a suit by a now former Boston Police officer [Saviel Colón] who sued the city because of the way he was put on leave for refusing not just Covid-19 shots but to even take tests for the disease - and then fired when the pandemic waned, the city ended its vaccination-or-testing requirement and BPD ordered him back to work but then refused to make up the pay he'd lost for being on leave.” (Universal Hub)
• “The chief probation officer of Orange District Court was arrested after an Athol crash [in February] for allegedly driving drunk and carrying a firearm while intoxicated, records show. William M. Delaney, 54, was barred from carrying firearms and lost his driver’s license for 180 days after he refused a breath test.” (Telegram & Gazette; paywalled)
• “The owner of three Yamaha ATVs seized … in August says he has nothing to do with the reason [Boston police were] doing mass ATV/scooter seizures [in 2025] and wants his vehicles back - and without having to pay the thousands of dollars a tow lot wants for storing them. In his suit, filed [March 6] in Suffolk Superior Court, Jeancarlos Arias says the search warrant police used was not directed at him and he has not been charged with or investigated about anything in connection with them. And yet, he said, not only has BPD refused to give them back, they even handed one of the vehicles over to a third party, who then advertised it for sale on Facebook Marketplace.” (Universal Hub)

Other News

Worcester Police Department recently acquired BearCat armored vehicle (NewsTalk New England)

WPD SWAT and a crisis negotiator were called to the scene, along with the deployment of the department’s newly acquired Lenco BearCat armored vehicle.

Click the link for photos of this monstrosity.

SJC justice denies auditor motion for legal representation in effort to audit legislature (State House News Service)

In another setback to Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s bid to audit the Legislature, a high court judge on [March 3] denied her motion to obtain a special assistant attorney general to represent her in court.

“The State Auditor cites no statute, constitutional provision, or other authority that would permit a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to appoint a SAAG,” Supreme Judicial Court Judge Dalila Argaez Wendlandt wrote in a two-page ruling.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell has chosen to represent House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka in the case, resisting calls from DiZoglio to challenge their refusal to be audited by DiZoglio’s office.

State lawmaker uses fears of Trump administration to push back against making legislature more transparent (WBUR)

Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio and a group of state lawmakers sparred [March 3] during a heated hearing on a potential ballot question that would expand the public records law to cover the Legislature and governor’s office. …

In one exchange, Sen. Barry Finegold, an Andover Democrat, asked DiZoglio if the public records ballot question would allow the Trump administration to request conversations about funding cuts between local lawmakers and universities. …

DiZoglio said she was frustrated that Finegold invoked Trump.

“I have gotten incredibly frustrated with legislators who, every time transparency gets brought up, shift the focus back to the federal administration, because we're not talking about the federal administration right now,” she told reporters after the hearing.

Arguing that the Massachusetts Public Records Law shouldn’t apply to the state legislature because then the Trump administration would have access to public records is wildly cynical even by Beacon Hill standards. The answer to this question is that it doesn’t matter whether the Trump administration has access to the same communications between lawmakers and special-interest groups that the public should have!

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to keep The Mass Dump running, please consider offering your financial support, either by signing up for a paid subscription to this newsletter below, becoming a Patreon supporter, or sending a tip via PayPal or Venmo. Your support pays for this aggregation project and original investigative reporting. A monthly subscription is just $5.

Even if you can’t afford a paid sub, please sign up for a free one to get news about wrongful convictions, police misconduct, public records, and stuff like that—and please share this article on social media.

You can follow me on Bluesky and Mastodon. You can email me at aquemere0@gmail.com.

Anyway, that’s all for now.