Could an investigator’s drinking blow up a Lowell murder trial? What we know
A Massachusetts State Police sergeant may have had a blood alcohol level over the legal limit when he collided head-on with a van in Woburn in 2023, killing one of its passengers — a revelation that has upended the planned retrial of three men accused of killing a man in his car outside a Lowell home.
Sgt. Scott Quigley's own lawyer admits that the December 2023 collision that killed Angelo Schettino "resulted from Quigley's negligence as his cruiser crossed the center lane of travel and struck the van head-on." Quigley was on-duty at the time of the crash.
But prosecutors in the Middlesex County District Attorney's office never disclosed that Quigley's medical records showed a blood alcohol level of 0.11 that night, over the legal limit of 0.08, to defense lawyers in a murder case he investigated.
Lawyers for Billoeum, Billy Lee and Channa Phan learned of Quigley's potential criminal culpability on the second day of jury selection in the trio's murder retrial in January. Prosecutors say they only learned of it the day before.
The Phan brothers are accused of plotting to kill Tyrone Phet on Sept. 14, 2020 — prosecutors say Billy Lee Phan and Billoeum Phan fired 20 rounds at Phet, then sped away in a car driven by Channa Phan. Their trial is now set for the end of April.
How it happened in court
Prosecutors first alerted defense attorneys for the Phan brothers about the evidence that Quigley may have been impaired at the time the crash on Jan. 28 — the second day of jury selection in their murder retrial.
William Dolan, who represents Channa Phan, recalled seeing prosecutor Tom Brant return late from the court lunch break red-faced and sweaty. After one prospective juror had been questioned, Brant asked for a recess.
Prosecutors exited the courtroom with the judge still on the bench, which Dolan said struck him as odd. Another 10 to 15 minutes went by and Brant returned looking as though he had just run up seven flights of stairs to the seventh-floor courtroom where the trial was taking place, Dolan recalled.
When prosecutors returned, the lawyers spoke and Brant began to detail the circumstances surrounding the crash and Quigley's involvement.
The prosecutor "didn't calm down for a period of time," Dolan said, adding he "saw him texting a lot."
Selection continued until Feb. 3, when the trial was delayed for a further investigation into the crash.
A cover-up?
In any criminal case, prosecutors are obligated to turn over information that could benefit a defendant at trial — including information that could damage the credibility of investigators.
The late disclosure of the information regarding Quigley made defense lawyers angry, including Dolan, who filed a motion to dismiss for prosecutorial misconduct. The actions of prosecutors and Massachusetts State Police investigators regarding Quigley amounted to a cover-up, he said.
"I don't know what other results you can come to," Dolan said in a telephone interview.
"They either covered up Sgt. Quigley's involvement, or they buried their head in the sand," he wrote in a court filing, noting that by law, the district attorney's office is responsible for investigating all unattended deaths in the county. "Their willful ignorance is in fact purposeful misconduct."
Dolan said Quigley could not have hid his misconduct for years without assistance.
He and the other lawyers have moved for an evidentiary hearing on the motion to dismiss, where Quigley would be a key witness. In addition to Quigley, the lawyers want first responders from Woburn who went to the scene of the crash to testify as well as Massachusetts State Police who investigated the crash and Middlesex County prosecutors.
The defense lawyers say Middlesex County prosecutors were notified of Schettino's death on Feb. 16, 2024 by the Disabled Persons Protection Commission, about a month after he died. The office's homicide chief learned of his death in an email on Feb. 28 of that year.
It's not clear what, if any, investigation was done from there.
Among those who investigated Quigley's involvement in the crash was then Sgt. Jennifer Penton, who was recently indicted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Enrique Delgado-Garcia, a recruit fatally wounded in a training exercise. Penton, now a lieutenant, is also charged with perjury and accused of lying to a grand jury investigating Delgado-Garcia's death.
Penton conducted a "second-class investigation" into the crash and "let (Quigley) off the hook," Dolan said.
Penton waited eight days to interview Quigley following the crash, and reported he was unhurt, despite the trooper apparently suffering lacerated intestines, Dolan said.
Massachusetts State Police were in possession of Quigley's medical records on March 11, 2024, according to documents turned over to the defense lawyers, but the department apparently failed to report the elevated blood-alcohol level or take any further action.
"Was it something a little more intentional?" Dolan wondered.
Dolan and the rest of the defense lawyers also moved to allow them to call three current and former Middlesex County prosecutors as witnesses at an evidentiary hearing.
That includes the current lead prosecutor on the case, the chief of homicide in the office and a former prosecutor who worked on the first Phan trial, at which Quigley was a witness.
What prosecutors say
In court papers, prosecutors opposed the request for an evidentiary hearing and said they disclosed the information about Quigley as soon as they became aware of it.
While prosecutors knew Quigley was involved in a crash in December 2023, they did not know he had been speeding, had been cited for a marked lanes violation or that anyone had been hurt, Brant wrote in a court filing.
"In short, prior to January 27, 2026, none of the prosecutors were aware of the information related to the crash that is potentially exculpatory," the filing reads.
The district attorney's office has referred Quigley's case to the Suffolk County District Attorney for a "full and fair criminal investigation," and begun identifying other cases in which he was involved and notifying the defendants in those cases, according to the motion.
In a footnote, prosecutors said there was no apparent connection between the referral from the Disabled Persons Protection Commission about Schettino's death and Quigley when they received it.
"The information at issue is inadmissible, and it is unnecessary to undertake an extensive evidentiary hearing to explore it further," Brant wrote, noting that the government would not call Quigley at trial. "It would likewise be inappropriate to dismiss a first-degree murder case based on inadmissible information that the prosecutors provided to the defense as promptly as reasonably possible after receiving it."
The State Police response
For its part, the Massachusetts State Police has pledged an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash and the apparent failure to notify prosecutors that Quigley may have been under the influence.
In a letter to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan dated Feb. 20, State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble said a three-person team from 21CP Solutions will conduct a review "focused on the handling of this incident and the internal policies and controls that should have ensured timely awareness and notification."
According to its website, 21CP Solutions aims to "help communities and law enforcement agencies improve public safety through innovative and community-centered approaches."
The review will end with recommendations from the firm to "strengthen policy, training, supervision, and internal controls to prevent a recurrence," Noble said.
Noble added in his letter that he was "committed to ensuring this matter is addressed with serious urgency."
Ryan's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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