Mass law enforcement misconduct news, Mar. 30-Apr. 5

A quick update. In my last story, I included an incorrect date for when the Massachusetts Appeals Court will hold oral arguments in the case of James Carver. The arguments were rescheduled to May 13. I fixed the web version of the story shortly after publishing it, but I wanted to make sure that people who read it in their inbox saw the correct date.

You can read my recent story about the James Carver case here:

Essex County DA Fights to Send James Carver Back to Prison in Elliott Chambers Fire Case

A judge threw out James Carver’s murder convictions due to new scientific evidence—prosecutors say the ruling should be reversed

The Mass DumpAndrew Quemere

The Appeals Court livestreams oral arguments on YouTube. The arguments in Carver’s case will be available to stream here on May 13.

Law-enforcement misconduct news

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

NBC10 Boston says what readers of this newsletter already know:

If it seems like there is a headline almost every day about police misconduct in Massachusetts, it’s not your imagination.

Over the past few months, there has been an avalanche of bad news involving law enforcement. …

“I think it’s shocking,” said Dennis Galvin, the president of the Massachusetts Association for Professional Law Enforcement. “The public confidence is going to continue to erode. That’s a critical issue for every citizen or resident of Massachusetts ... because it undermines the criminal justice system. It undermines your faith in the law.”

A steady stream of stories about alleged police misconduct is nothing new—nor is it unique to Massachusetts. However, early numbers are showing an increase in felony prosecutions of Massachusetts police officers in 2026. According to a story by MassLive:

Through the first three months of the year, more than a dozen officers were charged with felonies — a marked increase from years past, state data show. …

Data from the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST), the state’s police oversight board, show 20 current and former officers had their certifications suspended in the first three months of 2026. Suspended officers are temporarily barred from working in law enforcement.

Most of those officers, 15, were charged with felonies this year. 

That could mean that more police officers are committing crimes or it could simply mean more officers are being prosecuted.

State Police scandals continue to mount

• “An internal investigation into a deadly 2023 motor vehicle accident involving suspended Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Scott Quigley has uncovered allegations of a deliberate cover-up orchestrated by a fellow trooper. The report, authored by attorney and retired Judge Thomas Drechsler for Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan, reveals that while most employees at the District Attorney’s Office were kept in the dark for years, a state police investigator [Sergeant Anthony DeLucia] allegedly pressured a colleague to take the truth to the grave.” (Boston 25 News)

• “Karen Read is asking a judge to let her use records from fired Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor’s personal phone in a forthcoming lawsuit against Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton.” (MassLive)
• “A supervisor [Lt. Jennifer Penton] and two instructors [Troopers Edwin Rodriguez and David Montanez] with a Massachusetts State Police tactical unit plead not guilty [on April 2] in connection with the death of a recruit [Enrique Delgado-Garcia] who suffered a concussion during a sparring session and blunt force injuries a day later in what investigators called an ‘unapproved and unsafe’ boxing match. … The three defendants were released on personal recognizance under several conditions including having no contact with potential witnesses in the case.” (Associated Press)
• “Now, with four police troopers charged in [Enrique] Delgado-Garcia’s death, lawyers on both sides of the case are likely to zero in on what exactly the supervisors knew of Delgado-Garcia’s injuries, and when, and whether they followed department policies and boxing best practices leading up to those fatal blows, legal analysts said. … [Special prosecutor David Meier] described a Wild West-like setting, in which dozens of troopers took part in unapproved sparring sessions with an abandonment of academy protocol and boxing safety regulations: inadequate medical supervision, a referee who no longer had a license, insufficient evaluation of trainees after sparring sessions that left them with headaches and bloody noses.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)

More misconduct allegations

• BOSTON PAID MASSIVE SETTLEMENT TO WRONGFULLY CONVICTED MAN: “The city of Boston paid a $12 million settlement to a man who spent nearly 19 years in prison for a murder he said he did not commit, quietly agreeing to the enormous sum years after a judge threw out his conviction because of police and prosecutorial misconduct. Shaun Jenkins filed a federal lawsuit against the city and several Boston police detectives in 2023 after documents showed the detectives had paid at least one key witness and prosecutors buried evidence that could have implicated another suspect.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)
• “A Plymouth police officer [Samantha Pelrine] who is facing child rape charges has had her certification suspended by the Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, Commission. … The POST Commission order is redacted, so it’s not clear what specifically prompted the suspension.” (NBC10 Boston)
• “A sergeant on the UMass Boston police force [Edouardo St. Fort] was arrested [March 31] on charges he participated in a New York City bribery and kickback scheme involving home health care for the elderly and a security firm he set up, allegedly starting before he retired from the New York Police Department and moved [to Massachusetts].” (Dorchester Reporter)
• “A Boston police officer is facing criminal charges after police responding to his home found his department-issued gun and his taser unsecured in his vehicle, prosecutors said. Sean Cullen faces a felony charge of improper storage of a large capacity firearm and a misdemeanor charge of improper storage of a firearm in January.” (Boston.com)
• “Kelsey Fitzsimmons, a former North Andover police officer who was at the center of a high-profile trial after being shot by a colleague, is now taking legal action against the town. … Fitzsimmons’s legal team is expected to file presentment letters [on April 2], a precursor to civil litigation.” (Boston.com)
• “As news broke this week that Kelsey Fitzsimmons was planning to pursue civil litigation against the town of North Andover, an ‘unauthorized’ social media comment seemingly made by the town’s police department prompted online outrage and a swift internal investigation from the department. … NAPD is investigating the unauthorized use of its Facebook page, and officials are alleging an unnamed former employee made the comment.” (Boston.com)
• “Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox did not violate Eddie Chrispin’s First Amendment rights when he busted Chrispin from deputy superintendent to a sergeant in Charlestown after he refused to resign his post with the [state] commission that decides whether to bar Massachusetts police officers facing disciplinary action, a federal judge ruled.” (Universal Hub)
• Joel P. Daoust, a white Massachusetts State Police sergeant who during a traffic stop allegedly slammed a Black woman to the ground and pepper sprayed her in the face while she cried and begged him to stop, “pleaded not guilty to [assault] charges in Springfield District Court on [April 3]. [He] arrived with a strong showing of his colleagues, who sat in the court gallery alongside him.” (MassLive)
• “A former corrections officer who worked for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department has pleaded guilty to pandemic unemployment and loa[n] fraud, the U.S. Attorney said. Jasmine Murphy, 39, of Boston, pleaded guilty in federal court to seven counts of wire fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution.” (Boston 25 News)
• “A pair of brothers, who are former cops, convicted of a bribery kickback scheme that netted them millions of dollars in Mass Save contracts have lost their appeal. Christopher and Joseph Ponzo — ex-Stoneham police officers — defrauded a company to obtain tens of millions of dollars of Mass Save funds through paying bribes and kickbacks to company employees.” (Boston Herald)

Federal law enforcement

• “[Trump administration] lawyers were ordered … to turn over grand-jury instructions ‘on the elements of smuggling’ and other documents that could help a Russian-born Harvard Medical School researcher make the case that they only brought criminal charges against her for the frozen frog embryos she got caught with at Logan as retribution against both her, for daring to fight her immediate deportation, and against Harvard, for being Harvard.” (Universal Hub)

Other News

Police certification not automatically reinstated when officers are cleared of criminal charges (MassLive)

For any police officer charged with a felony in Massachusetts, discipline from the state’s police oversight board is automatic — their certification to work in law enforcement is suspended.

But when officers are cleared of those criminal charges, either by acquittal or some other disposition, the Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, Commission doesn’t automatically reinstate them.

Suspension orders issued by POST remain in effect until a final decision by the commission, which could pursue its own discipline against an officer.

Plymouth County prosecutors to retry man after SJC throws out murder conviction (Enterprise)

The Plymouth County District Attorney’s office said it intends to retry Renardo C. Williams Jr., pushing back against a Supreme Judicial Court ruling [on March 30] that vacated Williams’ murder conviction in the 2018 fatal Brockton shooting of Bethgy Cator, 26, of Avon. …

According to court documents, prosecutors filed its motion March 30, the same day the SJC vacated Williams’ first-degree murder conviction, among other charges, after finding a judicial error blocked relevant evidence that could have supported Williams’ claim of self-defense.

Man dies in prison despite being approved for medical parole (MassLive)

A Massachusetts man was granted medical parole in January. But more than two months later, he died while still incarcerated as his lawyer fought for his release.

James Ware, 52, died [the night of April 1]. He was considered terminally ill and permanently incapacitated due to incurable lung cancer with only months to live. He had been incarcerated since 1998 after being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder he committed when was 20. 

ICE arrests in Mass skyrocket under Trump (WBUR)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 7,030 people in Massachusetts [during the first 14 months of the Trump administration], according to a WBUR analysis of data compiled by the Deportation Data Project. That’s nearly five times the 1,470 immigrants arrested here in the final 415 days of the Biden administration. …

Of the many places where ICE detained people over this period, at least 210 arrests were labeled in association with 32 local police departments. ICE officials routinely complain that they don’t get enough help from local police departments, but the data may reflect cooperation from numerous departments, particularly in Lawrence and Boston.

Mass Senate president claims state auditor is acting like king by trying to audit legislature under voter-approved law (Boston Herald)

Sued for blocking the voter-approved audit of the state Legislature, Senate President Karen Spilka is opening up on her resistance, arguing that Auditor Diana DiZoglio is trying to act like a monarch. …

“They didn’t want a king to happen here in Massachusetts,” [Senate President Karen] Spilka said of the Founding Fathers, “so the executive cannot oversee the Legislature … and that is exactly what we believe the auditor wants to do, insert herself into the doings of the Legislature.”

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