Related: Sorry I'm So Late With This Post About Lowell
I'm getting better:
"Feds probe use of informants in Lowell" by Michael Rezendes | Globe staff September 19, 2014
US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz has opened a criminal investigation into allegations that Lowell police officers knowingly relied on two informants suspected of planting drugs on dozens of innocent victims, a scandal that led prosecutors to drop charges last year in 17 pending cases and to overturn two convictions.
Just one more reason not to believe government or law enforcement when going into that courtroom.
If the government is shit, you must acquit!
The police misconduct allegations were investigated a year ago by the offices of Middlesex District Attorney Marian T. Ryan and Essex District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett, which found that the Special Investigations Section “did not engage in any criminal wrongdoing or negligence in the performance of their police duties.”
OMG, they covered it up and she was just reelected!
But on Wednesday the city of Lowell’s top lawyer disclosed that the FBI and the US attorney’s Public Corruption Unit have recently opened a wide-ranging criminal investigation into Lowell’s use of the informants, “including police misconduct.”
“Within the last several weeks the city was made aware, for the first time, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Public Corruption Unit, initiated a criminal investigation with respect to the allegations of planting evidence by informants working for the Lowell Police Department,” an attorney for City Solicitor Christine P. O’Connor wrote in filings for a related federal civil lawsuit.
Howard Friedman, a Boston lawyer representing three men who say they were falsely accused based on planted evidence, welcomed the federal probe while criticizing the earlier investigation by Ryan and Boldgett.
“My clients are pleased there is a federal investigation of this matter,” said Friedman, who has filed a federal lawsuit charging that Lowell police violated his clients’ civil rights. “They expect it will be more thorough than the district attorney’s investigation.”
Ortiz’s office would not comment on the matter, and O’Connor did not return a call seeking comment.
But a lawyer representing the police officer named in the civil lawsuit filed by Friedman, Thomas Lafferty, denied the allegations.
“There’s no basis for the claim that Lafferty knew that the informants were doing anything improper,” said Bradford N. Louison, Lafferty’s attorney.
The allegations of planted drug evidence came to light in November 2012, when one of the informants advertised his services to the Massachusetts State Police and “boasted about his skill and experience in planting evidence,” according to the civil lawsuit.
And sending it to the lab is no better!
State Police then informed Lowell police, which stopped using the informants and asked the Middlesex district attorney’s office to investigate.
O’Connor disclosed the existence of the US attorney’s investigation as part of an attempt to delay sharing evidence with Friedman in connection with the civil rights lawsuit.
WTF? Doesn't government want us to know the truth?
In her legal brief, O’Connor asked a federal judge to delay the sharing of evidence because individuals who provide information or give sworn pretrial testimony in the civil case are now facing criminal investigation over the same issues.
O’Connor’s brief lists the names of five Lowell police supervisors who have been asked to tell lawyers for the alleged victims what they know about Lowell police practices.
A lawyer for Ryan and Blodgett has also filed legal papers asking the judge in the case to stop the City of Lowell from turning over evidence to lawyers for the alleged victims of the two informants and Lowell police.
Ryan and Blodgett said the documents are privileged because they were “created during an ongoing investigation” into the Lowell Police Department, noting that their review of Lowell’s use of drug informants is still under review by a county grand jury.
Guess not with that lame-ass excuse.
Ryan’s office referred requests for comment to the attorney general’s office, and a spokesman declined to comment.
But Friedman questioned the claim that the investigation by the two district attorneys is active, noting that their investigators have never interviewed his clients.
“An investigator seeking the truth would have questioned the victims who had items planted in their cars,” Friedman said.
“The [district attorney’s] investigators did not try to speak to our three clients about these allegations.”
Not seeking the truth, where they?
In the civil lawsuit, Friedman accuses Lowell police of failing to keep records on the use of informants for more than 20 years.
The Globe has reported that Lowell police may have been using one of the informants suspected of planting evidence as far back as 2003, in a case that led to the arrest of a New Hampshire man for cocaine possession.
Friedman said the use of the informant for so many years could mean that several individuals are languishing in prison, even though they are innocent, due to convictions based on evidence planted by the informant.
In AmeriKa? No way!
During a 2011 hearing in a separate drug case, Officer Lafferty of the Lowell police testified that he used information supplied by one of the informants “over 50” times and that 75 percent of the time, the information led to arrests.
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Also see: Modern Day Robin Hoods
