Mass law enforcement misconduct news, May 25-31
Attleboro detective charged with shooting hole in boat, state trooper named in wrongful-death lawsuit, 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
- “Matthew Farwell, the former [Stoughton] police officer accused of killing Sandra Birchmore and staging it as a suicide, won’t be released on bail before his trial, a federal judge ordered [on May 26], noting ‘very strong, if not overwhelming’ evidence against him.” (NBC10 Boston)
- “A Natick police officer facing charges connected to an alleged domestic assault in Holliston is scheduled for trial [in June]. Jackson Dwyer appeared Wednesday, May 27, in Framingham District Court for a pretrial conference. Judge David Cunis set his bench trial for June 15. A bench trial is when the judge hears and decides the case, rather than a jury.” (MetroWest Daily News)
- “An Attleboro Police detective is facing criminal charges, accused of shooting a hole in a boat on a pond in North Attleborough. … According to court documents obtained by NBC 10, Attleboro detective James Miller was in a kayak Thursday, May 21, when his brother, who is also an Attleboro officer, and a friend went looking for Miller because they were concerned about his well-being, saying he was in crisis.” (WJAR)
- “A former corrections officer for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department was ordered [on May 28] to pay back nearly $55,000 in federal pandemic loans and unemployment benefits for which he was not entitled, federal prosecutors said. Christnel Orisca, 26, of Boston was also sentenced to a year of supervised release during a hearing in federal court in Boston.” (Boston Globe; paywalled) Read the US Department of Justice’s press release here.
- “The head of the Massachusetts State Police can’t be sued for an alleged program that secretly recorded officers’ phone conversations with civilians and used them to bring criminal charges, the First Circuit said [on May 28]. A group of Massachusetts residents filed a putative class against against Superintendent Geoffrey Noble, as well as Motorola and other companies, over the secret recordings, which were used to propose criminal charges in at least 181 cases without prosecutors’ knowledge, the three judge panel said.” (Bloomberg Law)
- “The U.S. Supreme Court on May 26 declined to take up an appeal by Daniel J. Griffin, the former [Massachusetts] state police lieutenant convicted by a federal jury in Worcester of stealing federal overtime. The denial comes as a lawyer for Griffin, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024, indicated he could be slated for release as soon as August, according to a May 28 status hearing in federal court.” (Telegram & Gazette)
- “The family of 37-year-old Angelo Schettino has escalated its legal fight, filing an amended lawsuit that names both the Massachusetts State Police and the homicide detective [Scott Quigley] involved in the December 2023 crash that claimed his life. The new complaint in Essex Superior Court seeks $25 million in damages.” (Boston 25 News)
Federal
- “A Martha’s Vineyard high school student who was detained by the U.S. Coast Guard and handed over to ICE [in May] has been released. … On [May 22], U.S. District of Massachusetts judge Julia Kobick ordered that ICE release the high school student to an older brother. In a separate hearing on [May 25], Judge Indira Talwani ordered that the father should also be released by noon [on May 27].” (GBH)
- “A Boston federal judge [last] week ordered ICE to permanently leave an Ecuadorean woman alone, to give him proof that ICE lawyers have explained to a senior ICE official in Boston why the judge lost all faith in his ability to carry out the law and to pay all of the woman’s legal fees and court costs to get her out of a for-profit Louisiana gulag and back home.” (Universal Hub)
These lawless ICE thugs are starving people, denying them medication for serious conditions like epilepsy, and lying to courts about it, but Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has no problem turning people in the Department of Correction’s custody over to them because they must have “done something pretty bad.”
Andrew Quemere
Other News
Massachusetts State Police say trooper injured by gun accidentally firing (WCVB)
The gun that Massachusetts State Police say experienced an accidental discharge [on May 27], injuring a trooper at the Mounted Unit barn in Acton, is the same weapon tied to dozens of discharges in Massachusetts and around the country.
Concerns have dogged the Sig Sauer P320 for years, with lawsuits and other claims saying it goes off without the trigger being pulled, sometimes causing serious injuries.
You can see a video demonstrating the Sig Sauer P320 firing without a full trigger pull here.
Bill would require police to have college degree (Boston Herald)
A bill in the state Senate proposes that aspiring police officers receive the equivalent of an associate’s degree before they can be sworn in.
The Massachusetts Association for Professional Law Enforcement (MAPLE) filed the legislation, which would require applicants to the state’s police forces complete 60 college semester credits in a criminal justice, police science, or other degree approved by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST). …
[MAPLE President Retired State Police Major Dennis Galvin] said having implicit bias is about “a lack of comprehension about how big the world is,” and being able to learn about other cultures and the world in an academic setting can open would-be officers’ eyes.
Studying psychology could give a foundation to future officers to tackle mental health crises, which are becoming an increasing part of police work, he said.
This is all fine, but having better educated police officers is never going to be a replacement for actual mental health professionals. Those are the people who should be responding to mental health crises.
Federal government dismisses Trump admin’s lawsuit against Boston’s “Trust Act” (WBUR)
A federal judge in Boston has dismissed the Trump administration's lawsuit against the city of Boston over its immigration enforcement policy, saying the U.S. lacks standing to bring the claim against the mayor and other officials.
In a ruling [on May 28], U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin denied the federal government's effort to bar enforcement of Boston's Trust Act — and ordinance that says police can't take part in civil immigration enforcement.
Trump administration sues after RMV denies ICE undercover license plates (GBH)
The Trump administration sued top Massachusetts officials over its refusal to issue undercover license plates to federal immigration enforcement agencies on [May 27].
The federal government is asking a Boston federal judge to step in and order state officials to resume issuing those license plates.
Public defender agency says it’s run out of money for clinicians and other vendors (Universal Hub)
The state-funded Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), which provides legal representation for people facing criminal charges or state issues who can’t afford a lawyer, notified vendors - including clinicians, translators, transcriptionists and people who serve summonses - it’s run out of money for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
Six MassDOT workers resign after overtime exposé (Boston 25 News)
Facing the possibility of being fired, six high-earning Massachusetts Department of Transportation maintenance workers chose to walk away from their state jobs on [May 28], abruptly resigning in the wake of an explosive 25 Investigates report about apparent overtime reporting discrepancies.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin will likely cruise to reelection (CommonWealth Beacon)
There’s little that Secretary of State Bill Galvin has not experienced in his nearly five-decade career in elected office. But this fall, the veteran Democrat faces a situation new even to him: he does not have a single major-party opponent in his bid for yet another reelection.
Galvin, who will be 76 on Election Day, is seeking a record-extending ninth term as the state’s chief elections official. And for the first time in that historic span, Galvin will face neither a Republican nor a Democrat opponent en route to what now appears an inevitable victory.
NEW: Senate’s new audit compliance raises more questions than it answers commonwealthbeacon.org/government/s...
— CommonWealth Beacon (@cwbeacon.bsky.social) May 28, 2026 at 7:40 PM
[image or embed]
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.
“The U.S. and Israel's air war with Iran has killed thousands since its launch, but perhaps no deaths have left more of an awful imprint than the strikes on a school in southern Iran. More than 150 died, most of them schoolchildren, and there is little doubt it was American missiles that struck.”
— Andrew Quemere (@andrewqmr.bsky.social) May 26, 2026 at 7:02 PM
[image or embed]
Kudos if you guessed that the insurance company is UnitedHealthcare.
— Andrew Quemere (@andrewqmr.bsky.social) May 31, 2026 at 8:43 PM
[image or embed]
“Drivers for ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft celebrated Tuesday after #Massachusetts became the first state to recognize their union, a milestone in the growing effort to organize gig-economy workers classified as independent contractors under federal labor law.”
— Andrew Quemere (@andrewqmr.bsky.social) May 26, 2026 at 6:53 PM
[image or embed]
That’s all for now.
