4 Mass. State Police members suspended with pay after being charged in recruit’s death
Massachusetts State Police has suspended four members of its department with pay in the wake of state prosecutors charging them with involuntary manslaughter in a recruit's death , the police department announced Thursday evening.
The four members are Lt. Jennifer Penton, who was last assigned to State Police's Revere Barracks; Trooper Casey LaMonte, who was last assigned to State Police's Certification Unit; and Troopers Edwin Rodrigues and David Montanez, who were last assigned to the State Police Academy.
The lieutenant and three troopers were charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily injury to a person participating in a training involving physical exercise in the death of Worcester native Enrique Delgado-Garcia on Feb. 9.
Delgado-Garcia, 25, died on Sept. 13, 2024, after becoming unresponsive during a sparring exercise at the State Police Academy in New Braintree.
Penton, Rodrigues, Montanez and LaMonte were suspended following duty status hearings during which all available information was reviewed, State Police said. If new information becomes available through the judicial process, the department may hold additional hearings.
None of the four were previously subject to the police force's disciplinary process, State Police said.
Penton was a supervisor at the State Police Academy, and Rodrigues, Montanez and LaMonte were full-time instructors there. All four are accused of "wanton and reckless" conduct, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and independent investigator David Meier said while announcing the charges .
Delgado-Garcia had concussion-like symptoms following an "unauthorized, unapproved, and unsupervised" boxing-related exercise two days before he died, according to Meier, an attorney appointed by Campbell to look into the recruit's death.
A day after the exercise, Delgado-Garcia was knocked out during a competitive boxing match with a fellow recruit, officials said. He was left with multiple blunt force injuries to the head and a massive brain bleed.
Meier blamed the recruit's death on "the failure of academy staff to intervene."
Penton faces an additional charge of perjury for giving false testimony to the grand jury investigating the case regarding when she learned of Delgado-Garcia's concussion symptoms, officials said.
Last week, the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, Commission suspended Penton's, Rodrigues's, Montanez's and LaMonte's certifications .
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