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Boston Police Department

Boston cop who used to stand outside the mayor's house yelling about Covid-19 sues over her firing, says it violated her free-speech and religious rights

By adamg - 1/2/25 - 10:36 am

Shana Cottone, fired as a Boston Police sergeant in 2023, this week sued to get her job back, charging she was terminated as retaliation for exercising her First Amendment religious and free-speech rights by refusing Covid-19 shots and then organizing protests against city Covid-19 policies, which included early morning, bullhorn-enhanced protests outside Mayor Wu's Roslindale home and the swarming of two Boston pizzerias by people who refused to show proof of vaccination. Read more.

BPD officer charged with domestic violence on Christmas

By adamg - 12/27/24 - 4:25 pm

WCVB reports Terrence Murray, a four-year BPD veteran, is on "administrative duty" following his arrest in Hull.

Innocent, etc.

State rescinds Boston's firing of cop who tweeted support for violent coup attempt; says cops have First Amendment rights in their off hours

By adamg - 12/22/24 - 12:30 pm

The state Civil Service Commission last week overturned Boston Police's firing of Ofr. Joseph Abasciano, who traveled to Washington to watch Jan. 6 unfold - although he never entered the Capitol - and who, under a pseudonym, posted a series of tweets calling officials who opposed the loser of the 2020 elections a bunch of traitors and urging "a civil war or a violent revolution." Read more.

Even busy lawyers on their way to court have to stay out of crime scenes wrapped in police warning tape, judge rules

By adamg - 12/20/24 - 11:53 am

A federal judge today tossed a lawsuit by a lawyer who claimed BPD officers violated his Constitutional rights when he made his way around police tape surrounding a Roxbury Crossing crash scene and then refused to back up because he had an important appointment to get to and they stopped him and only sent him on his away after he flashed his lawyer credentials. Read more.

Some Boston city councilors want to study how to better keep feds from getting hands on data collected by police, and not just about immigrants

By adamg - 12/12/24 - 3:42 pm

In what has become an annual December rite, Boston city councilors yesterday approved a federal homeland-security grant only after a sometimes pitched battle over the roll of Boston Police in collecting information on Boston residents - and the way the council schedules votes on things. Read more.

Judge dismisses wrongful-death suit by family of a man who ODed while in Boston Police custody - and then lay dead in his cell for more than half a day

By adamg - 11/9/24 - 12:14 pm

A federal judge yesterday dismissed a wrongful-death suit against an officer in Boston Police's D-4 district by the family of Cristhian Geigel, who ingested a fatal dose of drugs even though he'd been in a holding cell at the D-4 police station in the South End for more than a day and a half in 2019 - and then lay in the cell, dead, for another 14 hours before police realized he was dead. Read more.

Boston cop, security guard charged with running illegal underground club in Jamaica Plain

By adamg - 10/26/24 - 11:12 am

MassLive.com details the allegations against now suspended BPD officer Richard McDermott and BPHC security guard Luigi D’Addieco on charges they turned the basement of the storefront at 360B Centre St. in Jamaica Plain, which they'd originally leased to run an HVAC business, into an illegal nightclub. Read more.

Former Boston Police captain gets a year in federal prison for role in evidence-warehouse overtime fraud

By adamg - 10/24/24 - 10:37 pm

A federal judge today sentenced a retired Boston Police captain to one year in prison and two years of probation and ordered him to pay $154,249.20 in restitution for participating and overseeing an overtime fraud scheme at the Hyde Park evidence warehouse for several years, the US Attorney's office reports. Read more.

Boston cop who was fired because of Jan. 6 tweets calling Democrats and some Republicans traitors sues over that and city's denial of a religious exemption for Covid-19 shots

By adamg - 10/19/24 - 10:30 am

Joseph Abasciano, fired as a Boston cop in 2023 for going to Washington and posting a series of tweets about the "traitors" in the Capitol and across the country before and during the events of Jan. 6, 2021, yesterday sued Boston and its police department, alleging violations of his First Amendment rights to both free speech and religious freedom by a mayor and police commissioner allegedly out to get him. Read more.

Court tosses gun charges against Dorchester man who police say displayed guns on Snapchat after DA, police refused a court order to hand over data about fake police Snapchat accounts

By adamg - 9/6/24 - 11:37 am

The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld the dismissal of gun charges against a Dorchester man whom police say they watched showing off guns on Snapchat via a bogus Snapchat ID because both police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's office refused a lower-court order to turn over information about all the fake IDs they used to monitor suspected gang members in Snapchat videos around the time he was arrested - twice - in 2018. Read more.

Jehovah's Witness files second suit over his firing as a Boston cop for refusing Covid-19 shots, tests

By adamg - 8/26/24 - 2:51 pm

A former Boston cop who sued the city over his firing in state court in 2022 last week filed a similar suit in federal court - but added the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association to his list of defendants he says did him wrong. Read more.

Man who lost his job as police commissioner after just two days loses suit over his firing

By adamg - 8/20/24 - 11:04 am
Dennis White

A federal judge yesterday dismissed Dennis White's defamation and due-process suit against the city and former acting Mayor Kim Janey, concluding Janey didn't lie in her explanations for firing White in 2021, let alone say anything that rose to the level of"actual malice:" Read more.

Another Boston cop sentenced in overtime scandal, gets six months of home confinement

By adamg - 8/10/24 - 11:48 am

James Carnes, 61, of Canton, was sentenced this week to six months of home confinement, followed by 18 months of probation for his participation in an overtime-fraud scheme at the Boston Police evidence warehouse in Hyde Park that netted him a little over $20,000 in unearned pay over 2 1/2 years, the US Attorney's office reports. Read more.

Boston cop gets prison time for her role in overtime scandal at Hyde Park warehouse

By adamg - 8/8/24 - 8:05 pm

A federal judge this week sentenced former Boston Police officer to six months in prison for her role in the overtime scandal at the BPD evidence warehouse in Hyde Park. Read more.

Boston cop gets six months of home confinement for role in Hyde Park overtime scandal

By adamg - 8/3/24 - 10:44 am

A federal judge this week sentenced a former sergeant at the Boston Police evidence warehouse to six months of home confinement and nearly $31,000 in restitution and fines for the overtime pay he got for hours he didn't work over a three-year period, the US Attorney's office reports. Read more.

Lender sues Boston, tow company and RMV for the way a seized car it was still owed payments on was sold off

By adamg - 7/16/24 - 9:37 am

An Illinois lender yesterday sued the city of Boston, a Charlestown towing company and the Registry of Motor Vehicles over the way Boston lets tow companies not just seize cars on the order of Boston Police but sell them off without giving lenders the chance to get the car back first, which it charges is a violation of several of its constitutional rights. Read more.

Former police union head gets two years probation in overtime scandal; also has to reimburse Boston for bogus OT

By adamg - 7/12/24 - 3:04 pm

A federal judge yesterday sentenced Thomas Nee, one-time president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, to two years probation and ordered him to pay $16,151 restitution and $2,200 in fines and fees for his participation in the overtime scandal at the BPD evidence warehouse in Hyde Park. Read more.

Protests over way senior BPD commander was demoted after taking seat on statewide police oversight board

By adamg - 7/10/24 - 1:24 pm

The Dorchester Reporter reports on the complaints over the way Eddie Crispin was demoted from deputy BPD superintendent to sergeant detective after he took a seat on the state Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission.

Mistrial declared in case of woman charged with murdering a Boston cop

By adamg - 7/1/24 - 4:09 pm

WCVB reports on the mistrial declared today in the second-degree murder case of Karen Read, charged with ramming her then boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a Canton snowbank. The Norfolk County DA's office said it would re-try Read, whose attorneys say O'Keefe died at the hands of his fellow officers.

BPD cop in Hyde Park overtime scandal gets seven months of home confinement

By adamg - 6/22/24 - 11:24 am
OT slip showing he worked four hours one night when he left after two

OT slip showing he worked four hours one night when he left after two, via US Attorney

A federal judge this week sentenced BPD Sgt. William Baxter to seven months of home confinement, followed by 29 months of probation, for putting in for overtime for hours he did not actually work while in a position at the department evidence warehouse in Hyde Park. Read more.

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