Mass law enforcement misconduct news, Aug. 10-16

If you haven’t read it yet, check out my story from earlier today about the case of Stephen Pina:

It took less than two minutes for a judge to close the first-degree murder case against Stephen Pina. But the brief hearing on August 13 at Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston was the culmination of Pina’s decades-long fight to clear his name.

“Since October 6, 1993, the day I turned myself in, till today has been 32 years, 10 months, and seven days,” Pina told his supporters outside the courtroom as he fought back tears. “I’ve been waiting to be vindicated and to be an exoneree. Your boy is an exoneree.”

In 1996, a judge sentenced Pina to life without parole after a jury convicted him of murdering Keith Robinson. But in March 2022, after Pina had spent 28 years in prison, Suffolk County Superior Court Justice Peter Krupp suspended his sentence and freed him, citing exculpatory evidence that police and prosecutors had withheld during the trial. Krupp then overturned Pina’s conviction in February 2025. The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office appealed, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld Krupp’s ruling in a July 28 decision, leading prosecutors to drop the charges two weeks later.

There was no physical, photographic, or video evidence tying Pina to the crime, according to the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision. Instead, the case hinged on two now-deceased eyewitnesses who identified Pina as the man who shot Robinson on Horadan Way in the Mission Hill section of Boston on February 26, 1993.

Read the rest of this story here:

“Your boy is an exoneree”: Prosecutors drop charge for 1993 Boston murder

Stephen Pina spent 28 years in prison for a murder he said he did not commit

The Mass DumpAndrew Quemere

Police 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

• “A recent letter from the U.S. Department of Justice raises questions about how city leaders framed federal officials’ decision to close their investigation into the Worcester Police Department. … [A]ccording to a copy of the department’s letter to city leaders, … federal investigators never mention that they’re not sustaining their original conclusion about Worcester police misconduct. In fact, the letter suggested federal officials stood by the original findings.” (GBH)

Check out Bill Shaner’s commentary on the Department of Justice closing its investigation of the Worcester Police Department here:

Imposing ignorance on the system

City manager lies to the public big time

Worcester Sucks and I Love ItBill Shaner

• “Stoughton Town Manager Thomas Calter is pushing back against Police Chief Donna McNamara’s claims that he interfered with the police department’s handling of the Sandra Birchmore case. … ‘I want to be unequivocal on one point: I did not ask Chief McNamara to destroy, alter, suppress, or otherwise interfere with any investigation or investigative report concerning Sandra Birchmore,’ Calter said in [a] statement.” (MassLive)
• “The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office must hand over hundreds of anonymized health records of immigrant detainees following a Massachusetts court ruling. Judge James Budreau issued the order, released [August 12], a month after attorneys for the sheriff and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts sparred in Suffolk County Superior Court.” (New Bedford Light)
• “A District Court judge extended an abuse prevention order against a New Bedford police officer who ran her ex-girlfriend’s plates through the department’s Flock camera system, according to court testimony on [August 13]. Judge Heath Antonio found that the alleged victim continues to suffer from abuse and extended the order for six months. It prohibits the officer, Emily Pacheco, from possessing a firearm.” (New Bedford Light)
• “A Lowell District Court judge has ruled that a ghost gun and related statements cannot be used as evidence in the case against a 23‑year‑old city man, finding that [Lowell Police Detective Sergeant Nathan Bowler] conducted an unconstitutional search when [he] opened the center console of [the man’s] vehicle during an early‑morning encounter in January and discovered the weapon.” (Lowell Sun)
• “Police said they were attempting to restrain Malakai Linton during the altercation when [Lowell police] Officer Joao Bettencourt deployed his Taser on him, and that Malakai Linton then punched Bettencourt, knocking him out, while he was being Tased. Krystal Linton has said her son was trying to reach her after realizing she had been injured, and that the officer prevented him from doing so by Tasing him — which she has called ‘police brutality.’” (Lowell Sun)

Federal

• “A Boston federal judge [in early August] ordered ICE to immediately release a Chelsea construction worker who had been locked up since May 15, after concluding that the way ICE grabbed him out of a car they had stopped while looking for somebody else, plus the fact that he has lived here with no problems for six years, meant he should have been released long ago.” (Universal Hub)
• “A Boston federal judge [on August 13] gave ICE until 6 p.m. to release a man it grabbed when he showed up to have his photo and fingerprints taken for the asylum and work permit he had applied for.” (Universal Hub)

Other news

Worcester LGTBQ+ advisory commission asks city manager to reconsider decision not to create civilian review board (MassLive)

The Worcester Advisory Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs wants City Manager Eric Batista to reconsider his decision not to create a civilian review board.

The commission, which promotes and monitors policies promoting equality for the LGBTQIA+ community, voted 5-0 on the recommendation [last] week. The recommendation also acknowledges the progress made by the Worcester Police Department, while also saying trust needs to be improved with the LGBTQIA+ community.

Judge throws out charges in two Lowell shooting cases after prosecutors fail to hold probable-cause hearings (Lowell Sun)

Charges in two separate Lowell shooting cases were dismissed on [August 7] after a judge ruled prosecutors had failed to move matters forward, saying the defendants had waited long enough for a probable cause hearing that never materialized. …

The two cases had drawn criticism from [defense] attorney Roland Milliard … who argued the evidence was scant in each matter, noting no firearms were recovered in either situation, there has been no video evidence of the actual shootings, and there had been a lack of forensic testing, including gunshot residue or fingerprint analysis on spent shell casings.

The Lindsay Clancy trial and the insanity defense (Boston Globe; paywalled)

As the Lindsay Clancy trial draws a large following of armchair observers and becomes the subject of widespread speculation online, the action inside the courtroom is following a specific procedural structure largely unique to insanity cases.

Perhaps the most striking feature of such cases: The facts often aren’t in dispute. It’s the defendant’s mental state the jury will consider — to determine whether she should be held legally responsible for her actions.

Legal analysts expect the testimony will ultimately come to focus heavily on the opinions of expert witnesses, including mental health professionals who have reviewed the evidence available.

OPINION: “Lindsay Clancy didn’t have to be charged with first-degree murder. But the prosecutor is Tim Cruz.” (Boston Globe; paywalled)

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz did not have to bring first-degree murder charges against [Lindsay] Clancy, who killed her three young children in January 2023, during what [defense attorney Kevin] Reddington says was a bout of severe postpartum mental illness.

The prosecutor could have charged the Duxbury woman with second-degree murder, for example, which would have meant Clancy could waive her right to a jury trial, clearing the way for the case to be heard by a judge alone. Defendants who plead not guilty by reason of insanity, as Clancy has, usually ask for bench trials, because judges are better able to render verdicts on the facts and the law, and with less of the emotion that might understandably affect the judgment of 12 ordinary people asked to sit through days or weeks of horrific testimony and evidence.

Mass state Senators push to allow 18-year-olds accused of lower-level crimes to be tried as juveniles (CommonWealth Beacon)

Just as was the case two years ago, lawmakers sitting down now to finalize a sprawling bill intended to supercharge the region’s economy will need to debate whether the package should also embrace a major criminal justice reform.

Senators once again want to use the biennial economic development legislation as the vehicle to increase the age of juvenile jurisdiction, a change that would allow many 18-year-olds accused of lower-level crimes to be tried in Juvenile Court instead of in the adult system.

Supporters have long argued that allowing 18-year-old offenders — who are often still in high school — to remain under the purview of the Department of Youth Services will better equip them for rehabilitation, lower recidivism rates, and shield teenagers from conviction records that can significantly damage their long-term employment and housing prospects.

Feds arrest Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña on wire fraud, money laundering charges (NBC10 Boston)

Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña was arrested by the FBI on [the morning of August 14] at his home, three Lawrence city councilors confirmed to NBC10 Boston.

A criminal complaint filed [on August 13] in U.S. District Court in Boston charges DePeña with wire fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors say he fraudulently obtained over $1.5 million in COVID small-business loans and used the proceeds to fund his campaign account, pay personal taxes, and pay off over $880,000 in high-interest mortgages that encumbered various properties he owned in Lawrence.

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