State regulators suspended the policing licenses of 4 cops from Boston, Brockton, and Springfield, together with one accused of letting a police canine “viciously” assault a person hiding in a closet.
The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission is required by regulation to droop the police certifications of regulation enforcement personnel charged, indicted, or arrested in connection to a felony and revoke the license of officers who’re convicted of felonies.
The 4 new suspensions introduced earlier this week convey the whole variety of officers quickly barred from serving to 31, in keeping with an up to date record supplied to the Herald on Tuesday.
The additions come on the similar time the POST Commission revealed that it had decertified a Woburn cop accused of serving to plan a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. It is the primary time regulators have taken the extraordinary measure.
Officers newly added to the suspension record embody Jonathan Correia of the Brockton Police Department, Mila DePina-Cooley of the Boston Police Department, Jeffrey Alicea of the Springfield Police Department, and Monicka Stinson of the Boston Police Department.
Correia’s case stretches again to June 2022, when Brockton resident Jeff Camacho filed a civil rights lawsuit towards Correia, Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez, Brockton Officer Shannon Morency, and the City of Brockton.
In court docket filings, Camacho says he was inside his Brockton condo together with his girlfriend and two youngsters in April 2021 when police have been referred to as to the residence. Morency and Correia confirmed as much as the condo, with Correia bringing his police canine, Enzo, court docket paperwork mentioned.
Morency and different officers spoke to Camacho’s girlfriend outdoors the condo and discovered that Camacho was on the third ground. The girlfriend advised police Camacho was unarmed, there have been no weapons within the condo, and nobody was harm, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
Police officers entered the condo, together with Correia together with his police canine Enzo. Camacho, who in court docket paperwork maintained he “had engaged in no criminal conduct, was completely surprised by the police presence.”
Camacho hid in a storage closet contained in the condo whereas 10 Brockton law enforcement officials converged on the closet door, court docket paperwork mentioned. The officers, together with Morency and Correia, opened the closet door and “physically removed the plaintiff Camacho from the closet.”
“As officers were placing handcuffs on the plaintiff Camacho, Officer Correia released Enzo to attack him,” court docket paperwork mentioned. “Officer Correia’s police canine Enzo viciously bit onto the plaintiff Camacho’s right arm.”
Camacho mentioned the canine continued to chunk him “well after” he was cuffed, which triggered him “to experience excruciating pain,” in keeping with court docket paperwork.
“Officers, including Officers Morency and Correia, considered Camacho’s manifestations of pain as ‘resistance,’” court docket paperwork mentioned, including the canine chunk wounds later grew to become contaminated throughout a hospital keep.
Attorneys for Camacho and Correia didn’t reply to requests for remark.
A Brockton Police Department spokesperson acknowledged a Herald inquiry on Tuesday however didn’t present a remark.
In paperwork responding to the lawsuit, Correia denied that Camacho’s girlfriend advised police he was unarmed together with most of Camacho’s narrative.
“The defendant [Correia] admits that the police canine bit the plaintiff [Camacho] but denies the characterization of the bite as ‘viciously’,” Correia’s attorneys wrote.
Records present the case is enjoying out in federal court docket.
Springfield Officer Alicea is accused of assaulting a member of the family on April 15 whereas the pair have been driving in a car and he was in his police uniform, in keeping with a police report.
The police report mentioned the member of the family accused Alicea of inserting them in handcuffs and later throwing them to the bottom.
Attorney Daniel Kelly, who’s representing Alicea, didn’t reply to a request for remark. Court data accessed Tuesday present that Kelly filed a discover of look final week.
And in Boston, a jury convicted Officer DePina-Cooley final week on three counts of receiving stolen property, in keeping with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Judge Michael Ricciuti on Tuesday handed down a sentence of six months in Suffolk House of Correction with 60 days to serve with the stability suspended for one yr, plus 100 hours of group service.
A spokesperson for the Boston Police Department confirmed DePina-Cooley stays on depart with out pay, although “further action is expected.”
“It is unfortunate that an officer chose to violate the public trust in this way and we will take appropriate action,” Boston Police Department Commissioner Michael Cox mentioned in a press release to the Herald.
Stinson, a Boston police officer, was suspended with out pay in 2017 after she was accused of mendacity about her contact with a person needed for homicide, the Herald beforehand reported.
Stinson was a 10-year veteran of the division on the time and was charged with witness interference and obstruction of justice, in keeping with a police assertion from 2017.
A spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office mentioned Stinson’s case is scheduled for trial on October 16 and is represented by Attorney Lawrence Kelly.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”