Around New England

Springfield Detective Who Threatened To Plant Drugs Now Candidate for Sergeant

February 22, 2018

A Springfield detective was caught on video telling two juvenile suspects that he would brutalize them or plant drug evidence on them — but nearly two years after the video became public, he’s still on the force and is up for promotion.

Judges threw out dozens of drug convictions because the videos tainted the detective’s credibility, according to MassLive.com.

Internal email messages and interviews with current and former police officers obtained by MassLive.com suggest widespread dissatisfaction with how the police department’s internal affairs unit handled the case. The U.S. Department of Justice is now investigating, according to MassLive.com.

Some police and prosecutors are also frustrated by the lack of progress in an unrelated late-night bar brawl in 2015 between four off-duty Springfield cops and bar patrons. That case is now in the hands of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office and the FBI.

High-level officers in the Springfield police disagreed in interviews with MassLive.com who was even in charge of the department’s internal affairs unit.