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Weeks after a mistrial was declared within the high-profile murder case of Karen Read, extra allegations of police misconduct surfaced in the identical Massachusetts county the place a former police detective was charged in the 2021 death of a pregnant woman, putting a renewed highlight on the connection between police and prosecutors.
Felony justice specialists say the 2 instances seem to contain investigative missteps that spotlight the necessity to scrap the Massachusetts mannequin of investigating high-profile crimes.
“Understatement of the century however Massachusetts has a significant issue with homicide investigations involving police suspects, witnesses, and leads,” legal justice journalist Susan Zalkind posted on X on Wednesday. “Poor Sandra Birchmore. Past wicked.”
Federal prosecutors allege former detective Matthew Farwell groomed Birchmore, 23, and commenced sexually abusing her as a teen, when he labored with the Stoughton Police Explorers Academy, a youth program she was in. He was arrested Wednesday, with prosecutors alleging he killed Birchmore, who had instructed him she was pregnant along with his little one, and tried to stage the scene as a suicide in order that the sexual abuse allegations would keep hidden.
Farwell has pleaded not responsible.
Birchmore was killed in Canton, the identical Norfolk County city the place Boston police officer John O’Keefe, 46, was discovered useless on Jan. 29, 2022. His girlfriend, Learn, was tried in his dying. A jury failed to reach a verdict after her authorized workforce argued that Learn had been framed by different legislation enforcement officers trying to cowl up O’Keefe’s dying. She will probably be retried next year on the costs.
Federal investigators have been concerned in each instances, however officers haven’t introduced any hyperlinks between the 2. Nevertheless, on the coronary heart of each: allegations of botched investigations and legislation enforcement misconduct.
‘Incompetence or corruption?’
“Given these two instances, I might say it’s not simply in Norfolk County, however actually all through Massachusetts. The query that arises is, is it incompetence or corruption, or each?” stated Tom Nolan, a former Boston police lieutenant and legal justice professor.
In Massachusetts, detectives with the state police are assigned to district attorneys’ workplaces, which may result in the bungling of instances, Nolan stated.
Another, he stated, is the mannequin utilized in different states, together with Florida and Georgia, the place there may be an impartial investigative company to supervise the instances, moderately than counting on an company that enforces legal guidelines on highways.
“We noticed on full show for a number of weeks throughout the Karen Learn trial, the bumbling incompetence of the Massachusetts State Police, who have been assigned to the Norfolk DA’s Workplace. Her protection counsel simply principally eviscerated the State Police troopers who have been testifying as witnesses and specialists, — ‘knowledgeable witnesses.’ Their credibility was utterly undermined,” Nolan stated.
State police didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Hours after a mistrial was declared in Learn’s trial, the highest official at Massachusetts State Police stated the lead detective within the case had been relieved of duty after allegations of “severe misconduct” have been raised in court docket.
After the company launched an inner affairs investigation into the allegations, the detective was suspended without pay last month.
Zalkind, who wrote “Waltham Murders: One Lady’s Pursuit to Expose the Fact Behind a Homicide and a Nationwide Tragedy,” which focuses on a Massachusetts triple-slaying and the Boston Marathon bombing, instructed NBC Information that with out an impartial investigative company and correct checks and balances, prosecutors and police can get too cozy and politics can come into play.
“Whenever you imbue that tradition to the great outdated boys’ membership, to murder instances, there are severe points,” she stated. “Our murder investigations are politicized. The DAs within the state, all aside from one are Democrats. Our AGs are Democrats. … Our authorities is Democrat. So there’s a lack of incentive to do a vigorous follow-up.”
It doesn’t matter what the authorized outcomes within the Learn and Birchmore instances, public belief has been compromised, stated Zalkind.
A staged suicide
In asserting the cost Wednesday greater than three years after Birchmore’s dying, appearing U.S. Lawyer Joshua Levy referred to as the arrest of Farwell, a police officer who swore to guard the general public, “disheartening.”
Farwell is charged federally with one depend of killing a witness or sufferer.
“Giving voice to the unvoiced, making certain that nobody is above the legislation, defending the susceptible folks of Massachusetts, that’s the very best calling of individuals in legislation enforcement,” Levy stated. “Mr. Farwell violated these ideas, and now he faces very grave penalties.”
Farwell’s legal professional couldn’t be reached for remark.
State police initially dealt with the investigation into Birchmore’s dying. Nolan stated it’s “strikingly uncommon” that the case was taken over by federal authorities as a result of homicides are normally prosecuted as state crimes.
Federal authorities didn’t elaborate on why they took the case, besides to say investigators had obtained new proof that made the indictment and arrest potential.
David Traub, a spokesperson for the Norfolk District Lawyer’s Workplace, stated the workplace has lengthy been working with different legislation enforcement to safe an arrest.
“This workplace has been collaborating with each the Massachusetts legal professional common and the FBI for months on investigations into the Birchmore matter. Two of our detectives have been current on the command put up … whereas federal authorities have been trying to take Matthew Farwell into custody,” Traub stated.
“A lot of the data that they [federal authorities] constructed on originated with our investigation, together with the gathering of 1000’s of textual content messages, after which going by means of these textual content messages to see what legal conduct is likely to be substantiated from their contents,” he stated.
Prosecutors allege that Farwell killed Birchmore on Feb. 1, 2021, in her house, when he might now not management her and as phrase started to get out that he had been having intercourse together with her for years. Authorities initially dominated Birchmore’s dying a suicide.
Prosecutors contend that after Farwell strangled Birchmore, he repositioned her physique and staged her house to look as if she had died by suicide.
The health worker decided Birchmore’s dying was a results of “asphyxia by hanging” and she or he was eight to 10 weeks pregnant when she died, in accordance with an affidavit in help of the movement to detain Farwell.
The Massachusetts Workplace of the Chief Medical Examiner, which made that discovering, didn’t reply to a request for remark Friday. A spokesperson for the company told WFXT-TV of Boston that the workplace was conscious of Farwell’s indictment and had cooperated with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace.
An knowledgeable retained by federal prosecutors, Dr. William Smock, concluded the dying was a murder, arguing that a few of Birchmore’s accidents are extra frequent in instances of strangulation than hangings, like abrasions on Birchmore’s nostril, the affidavit stated.
Farwell’s arrest got here practically two years after Stoughton’s police chief introduced that Farwell and two different former officers on the company had inappropriate relationships with Birchmore. That conclusion got here from a prolonged inner affairs investigation prompted by Birchmore’s dying, stated Chief Donna McNamara, who referred to as the previous officers’ conduct “deeply disturbing.”
The chief stated all three males resigned earlier than they could possibly be interviewed. The division advisable that their certifications as cops be completely revoked so they can not serve in legislation enforcement wherever within the nation, McNamara stated.
Attorneys for the opposite former officer didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark in regards to the standing of their decertifications.
Questions in Learn investigation
After a nine-week homicide trial that captured nationwide consideration, a choose declared a mistrial for Learn on July 1.
Prosecutors have stated the connection between Learn and O’Keefe was deteriorating when she plowed into him together with her SUV. She was charged with second-degree homicide, motorized vehicle manslaughter whereas driving underneath the affect, and leaving the scene of a collision inflicting dying.
She has maintained her innocence and is about to face one other trial early subsequent yr. An legal professional for Learn didn’t reply to a request for remark Friday.
The Norfolk District Lawyer’s spokesperson stated prosecutors are making ready for Learn’s upcoming trial, and that the one applicable discussion board for figuring out her innocence or guilt is a courtroom.
No federal expenses have been filed within the case.
Through the authentic trial, Learn’s attorneys stated she watched her boyfriend enter the Canton, Massachusetts, residence of a now-retired Boston police sergeant for a celebration after an evening out with different present and former legislation enforcement officers. Hours later, the protection workforce stated at trial, she found O’Keefe had by no means come residence and raced again to the home, the place she discovered his physique.
Learn’s attorneys have alleged that O’Keefe was most definitely crushed inside the house and left exterior within the snow.
The protection has blamed authorities for failing to hold out a “actual” investigation and as an alternative specializing in Learn.
They’ve alleged the lead investigator within the case, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, was one of many chief causes the investigation was biased. They are saying he manipulated proof and made derogatory feedback about Learn.
Proctor has denied the allegations and stated his feedback have been unprofessional and regrettable however they didn’t compromise the case.
Proctor has not responded to requests for remark.
