A former Stoughton officer used an alias, "Marty Riggs," to communicate with Sandra Birchmore on Facebook, an official said.
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New details emerge from secret hearings for ex-Mass. officer in Sandra Birchmore case
The
former deputy chief of police for Stoughton, who retired amid an internal police investigation after the death of
Sandra Birchmore, called the pregnant 23-year-old on the day she died, according to newly released videos of a disciplinary hearing.
Robert Devine used the alias “Marty Riggs” — the name of a fictional character in the Lethal Weapon film series — on Facebook to message Birchmore and to coordinate a sexual encounter while he worked on duty in December 2020, according to an attorney for the Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission, or POST, at a hearing in June.
“[Sandra Birchmore] met him for a sexual encounter, as is reflected in the messages, while he’s on duty,” Shaun Martinez, an attorney for the POST Commission, said at the hearing. The hearings did not mention Birchmore by name, but used the initials “SB.”
“When confronted in the internal affairs investigation interview, Mr. Devine claims that he never had any electronic contact with [Birchmore] and that he never had any sexual contact with [Birchmore]. The Division’s position is that the evidence overwhelmingly supports that these statements are untrue,” Martinez said.
Martinez did not elaborate, however, about the phone call that Devine reportedly made to Birchmore on the day she died, according to a heavily redacted video of the disciplinary hearing obtained by MassLive.
Attorney Robert Stowe, who represents Devine, however, denied the accusations related to Birchmore.
“There’s a big lie that’s being played out here,” Stowe said, adding that the POST Commission’s lawyer was “trying to present a lie that’s been perpetrated by [Sandra Birchmore] at the behest or at the encouragement” of another former Stoughton officer: William Farwell, who now lives out of state.
William Farwell’s brother, Matthew Farwell, was
arrested and charged last year by federal officials who say he staged Birchmore’s death as a suicide to cover up sexual abuse and a relationship that began when she was a minor. She was pregnant with a child that she claimed was Matthew Farwell’s, but
recent reporting from The Boston Globe states that
DNA testing ruled him out as the father.
Kenneth J. Fishman, a retired judge who presided over Devine’s hearing, decided to
close it to the public after ruling that they must be kept confidential to honor protective orders covering evidence and witness testimony.
The hearings included testimony from Stoughton Chief of Police Donna McNamara and Brian Holmes, a former deputy chief in Stoughton and now the police chief in Kingston. Holmes testified that Devine had previously said that his accounts were hacked, and that’s why the alias “Marty Riggs” claimed to be him.
A
wrongful death lawsuit filed by Birchmore’s estate claims that Devine and the Farwell brothers groomed Birchmore when she joined the police department’s youth Explorers program in 2010 at age 13, a program that Devine supervised.
Matthew Farwell is the only one of the three accused by officials of sexually abusing Bichmore as a child; his brother and Devine, however, had sexual relationships with her after she became an adult, according to a
Stoughton Police Department investigation.
The hearing on June 5 is the first time that a lawyer for Devine has accused Birchmore or William Farwell of concocting false allegations against him.
A POST lawyer used a screenshot from forensic software used to analyze Birchmore’s phone to connect Devine to the “Marty Briggs” alias, but portions of his explanation were redacted from the video.
Devine’s attorney strongly objected to the use of at least one exhibit related to Devine and the “Marty Riggs” alias; however, much of the discussion is redacted.
A lengthy back-and-forth ensued over the exhibit, and Stowe argued that some of the exhibits were not the same as previously shared with him.
Holmes also testified that a phone extraction of Birchmore’s phone showed a conversation about someone at the Stoughton Police Department in law school, and to his knowledge, Devine was the only one who fit that description.
“There’s additional conversation about whether or not she was expecting a child of Matthew Farwell, and the response was something along the lines of, ‘You shouldn’t be talking to me about this. You shouldn’t be talking to anybody about this,’” Holmes testified.
The state’s police oversight board’s Division of Police Standards held closed-door hearings over four days this past summer in an effort to strip him of his ability to work in law enforcement in the state and the country.
Howard Friedman, an attorney who specializes in police accountability, obtained videos of hearings through a public records request and shared them with MassLive.
A decision by the POST Commission for Devine’s police certification remains pending.
The disciplinary hearings this past summer also delved into Devine’s history at the Stoughton Police Department, including a 60-day suspension and demotion from deputy chief to patrolman in 2015 after an internal investigation unrelated to Birchmore.
That earlier investigation sustained findings of conflict of interest, abuse of position and untruthfulness after Devine ordered a subordinate to use police resources to investigate a personal matter linked to an extramarital affair at the time, according to Martinez.
“Mr. Devine has a pattern of untruthfulness, abuse of power, and unprofessional conduct during his time as an officer,” Martinez said. “And given the gravity of his misconduct, it’s likely that it would escalate.”
A hearing officer — in a capacity similar to a judge — will render an initial decision that must go before the POST Commission for a vote. The commission will then either accept and adopt the initial decision in part or in whole, or return the matter to the hearing officer for further findings or a revised decision.
The agency will then announce its final decision.
