Mass law enforcement misconduct news, Sept. 21-27

First, if you missed it, check out my latest story published on Sunday about the case of Thomas “Tommy” Rosa:

Prosecuted By The DA, Exonerated By DNA

At one point in his decades-long fight for freedom, prosecutors declined to call on their own DNA expert whose findings skewed from their narrative

The Mass DumpAndrew Quemere

Next, Boston 25 News’s Ted Daniel on September 23 published this podcast about the upcoming trial of Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton police officer whom federal prosecutors accuse of murdering a young woman named Sandra Birchmore and staging it to look like she died by suicide:

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

State and local

• “Prosecutors in any criminal case must disclose certain evidence to defense lawyers, including investigatory materials such as witness statements, grand jury minutes and police reports, as well as information that benefits the defense. In [Myles] King’s case, [Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Adam] Lally failed to turn over six search warrants and slow-rolled DNA testing that excluded King as a contributor to DNA found on the gun used in the shooting, according to the defense.” (MassLive)
• “A former Lynn police officer has been indicted for allegedly using ‘unreasonable force’ during a May 16 call for service at a residence, the Essex County District Attorney’s Office announced [on September 24]. A grand jury indicted Christopher Gomez on charges of assault and battery and a civil rights violation in Essex County Superior Court, prosecutors said in a press release.” (Boston.com)
• Former Agawam police officer Matthew Hubbard was “convicted of larceny in another state [then] decertified [in 2025] by the state police standards commission for falsifying documents. Now, a Hampden Superior Court judge will decide if the commission’s decision should be reversed.” (Republican)
• “[Leominster police officer] Michael William Dingman faces misdemeanor charges of operating under the influence and negligent operation of a motor vehicle, as well as civil infractions for a marked lanes violation and speeding in violation of a special regulation, court records show.” (MassLive)
• “The Methuen Retirement Board voted [September 24] to suspend former [Methuen] police chief Joseph Solomon’s $184,000 a year pension. The move comes as Solomon pleaded guilty to 11 felony charges [earlier in September] after being accused of appointing unqualified police officers and trying to cover it up.” (WCVB)
• “A corrections officer at the Billerica House of Correction was indicted in connection with an assault on an incarcerated man at the jail in June, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan announced [September 25]. Alexander Tine is facing two counts of assault and battery, and one count of filing a false report, Ryan’s office said in a statement.” (MassLive)
• “A jury has found in favor of three Quincy police officers accused by a resident of employing excessive force during a June 2020 arrest. Salim Balbaky brought claims against officers William Lanergan, Michael Dougan and Paul Matthews.” (Patriot Ledger; paywalled)
• “Medfield Police Chief Michelle Guerette was placed on paid administrative leave [September 23] amid allegations that she violated department policies, town officials said.” (Boston.com)

Federal

• ICE SOUTH SHORE RAMPAGE: “Approximately 30 people were detained in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fall River that began [September 21] and has continued into its third day [on September 23], according to attorneys representing the mass of clientele — exceeding the roughly dozen arrests initially reported by elected officials. … [Two immigration lawyers told MassLive that] the bands of attorneys at their respective organizations have not yet been able to reach a single client by phone, nor can they yet reliably locate many clients in the Online Detainee Locator System on the ICE website.” (MassLive)
• “The regime [on September 24] asked the Supreme Court to do it a solid and issue one of those no-explanations shadow-docket rulings so it can resume shipping immigrants of one country to other countries without giving them any advance notice or chance to appeal, following a ruling by the Boston federal appeals court that the practice violates immigrants’ constitutional rights.” (Universal Hub)

Other news

Lowell city council votes to indefinitely suspend use of Flock cameras (Lowell Sun)

In a closely divided vote, the [Lowell] City Council [on September 22] approved a motion to indefinitely suspend the city’s use of the Flock Safety system, while the city completes a thorough policy review of its usage, the company’s use of data and the audit process of the data.

Flock is a high-tech automated license plate reader camera system that can scan every license plate that drives past and store the images for a set period of time. In Lowell, that retention time frame is currently 30 days.

New Bedford city council also votes to suspend use of Flock (New Bedford Light)

The [New Bedford] City Council in an 8-3 vote on [September 24] gave first approval to an ordinance that would bar Flock camera use in the city, though its sponsor, Councilor-at-large Shane Burgo, explained it would be a temporary measure.

Burgo said the ordinance would prevent further use of Flock given the approaching Nov. 12 expiration of Flock’s contract (which can be renewed), and allow the council time to develop a more detailed and permanent policy regulating the license-plate readers in the months to follow. …

Now the proposed ordinance will be published in an advertisement in the Standard-Times [newspaper] for 10 days to inform the public, Burgo said. If there are no objections, the ordinance would then go back to the council in October to be “ordained.” After that, it would go to the mayor, who has 10 days to veto, sign it or not sign it, Burgo said. If he vetoes it, the council needs eight votes to overturn the veto — the same number that [voted to support] the ordinance.

Worcester city councilor apologizes for invoking name of police chief and sergeant after crash (MassLive)

Worcester Councilor-at-Large Kathleen Toomey apologized on [September 22] for mentioning Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier and Sgt. Anthony Petrone to officers investigating a crash she was involved in — weeks after the incident took place. …

Petrone donated $100 to the city councilor’s reelection campaign in 2023 and $150 during the following election cycle, according to campaign finance records. In 2025, he also shared the New England Police Benevolent Association’s endorsement of Toomey and nine other candidates in a social media post. …

The Worcester Civilian Review Board coalition, a group of several Worcester organizations and individuals who repeatedly called for the creation of such a board, … criticized the Worcester Police Department for not conducting a field sobriety test and for muting its body cameras during certain sections of the footage.

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturns conviction for 2014 murder due to prosecutor’s misleading arguments about forensic evidence (Universal Hub)

If police criminalists had found three gunshot residue particles on Keith Williams after Dawnn Jaffier crumpled to the street, a fatal gunshot wound to her head during the 2014 J’ouvert parade, that would have been enough for prosecutors to use during Williams’s murder trial. But the expert found just two, prosecutors failed to explain to the jury why that was still enough proof of Williams’s guilt and so Williams deserves a new trial, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled [on September 22].

Massachusetts immigration judges are deporting “unaccompanied minors” (Boston Globe; paywalled)

For decades, the United States has largely refrained from deporting “unaccompanied minors” who are deemed by a state court to be at risk of further harm if sent home, instead offering humanitarian protection and time to apply for a green card.

Now, however, in an extraordinary departure from precedent, new immigration judges in Massachusetts and across the country have begun issuing removal orders against these children. The Department of Justice has said that reducing the backlog of cases in immigration court is a top priority.

Over the past month at the immigration court in Chelmsford, the Globe observed Judge Luciana Dubuc order the deportation of 17 children, including 7-year-old twin boys from Colombia, a 15-year-old girl from Honduras, and an 11-year-old girl from Haiti. The hearings usually lasted just a few minutes each.

A couple went on a Fox News podcast and claimed the state of #Massachusetts took away their teen because they won't help the teen transition. But it's actually because the father was charged with beating and threatening to kill the teen and the mother was charged with witness intimidation.

[image or embed]

— Andrew Quemere (@andrewqmr.bsky.social) September 21, 2026 at 2:23 PM

"The department’s assistance line, on average, automatically disconnected 74 to 81 percent of the calls coming in during the first six months of 2026, according to the 19-page complaint." www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/24/m...

[image or embed]

— Jonathan Cohn (@jonathancohn.bsky.social) September 25, 2026 at 6:58 AM

Working on a new project. It's a database of ethics disclosures filed by Massachusetts officials. ethics.statereference.com

[image or embed]

— nathan (@nathan.nathanielstory.com) September 27, 2026 at 1:26 PM

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.

That’s all for now.