Dismissing charge of killing Sandra Birchmore relies on ‘metaphysical impossibility,’ prosecutors say
Federal prosecutors urged a judge not to toss out the indictments against former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell , writing in a court filing that his attacks on the indictment don't show a deficiency requiring dismissal of the case.
Farwell was indicted on a single charge of killing a witness or victim in August 2024 — more than three years after Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment. He was then indicted again last fall , with prosecutors adding a charge of protection of unborn children, accusing Farwell of causing the death of Birchmore's baby.
The charge of killing a witness or victim accuses Farwell of killing Birchmore, whom he is accused of sexually abusing, beginning when she was a teenager, to prevent her from reporting him for possibly committing a federal crime.
In this case, prosecutors have said Farwell had sex with Birchmore while on duty as a police officer and then covered it up, constituting fraud, and that he committed statutory rape when she was 15.
Sandra Birchmore, of Canton, died in 2021 and Massachusetts officials ruled her death a suicide. On Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, federal authorities charged former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell with killing Birchmore. Bichmore is pictured here in a photograph from Facebook.Sandra Birchmore via Facebook
Farwell's defense has argued that the indictment itself does not provide sufficient detail about the crimes he is accused of and, as a result, must be thrown out.
But prosecutors wrote that any specificity Farwell seeks about the accusations against him could be solved in discovery. The indictment itself, they argue, meets the requirements under the law.
The government wrote that the judge shouldn't look into the evidence underlying the indictment and instead should focus on whether it provided enough information to inform Farwell about what he is accused of.
In their motion, Farwell's lawyers claimed the indictment did not sufficiently detail the specific communication he is accused of killing Birchmore to prevent and did not detail whether that communication would have been to a federal official, as required.
Prosecutors argued that the law, by definition, concerns federal officials and that because Farwell is accused of killing Birchmore before the communication took place, no more specificity is required.
"Farwell's argument demands a metaphysical impossibility," prosecutors wrote, adding that he "asks for specific allegations about a communication that never was because of his own conduct."
The defense argued that because the indictment fails to provide specific detail regarding the first charge, killing a witness or victim, it must be dismissed entirely because the second charge, protection of unborn children, is "inextricably tied" to the first.
Prosecutors said that wasn't the case, noting that the second charge is a completely separate federal crime. As a result, even if Farwell successfully identified a defect in the indictment on the first charge, the second charge shouldn't also be dismissed, the filing reads.
A hearing on the motion to dismiss is scheduled for Thursday at 11:30 a.m. in federal court in Boston.
Farwell first encountered Birchmore after she joined a program run by the Stoughton Police to teach young people about law enforcement careers, where he was a volunteer and later an instructor. Birchmore was 12 years old when she signed up in 2010. Prosecutors say Farwell began sexually abusing Birchmore when she was 15, younger than the age of consent in Massachusetts.
After Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment in February 2021, local officials ruled her death a suicide. But federal prosecutors eventually filed charges against Farwell.
Birchmore was eight to 10 weeks pregnant and carrying a boy when she died. She believed Farwell was the father, prosecutors have said. But DNA analysis revealed he was not , The Boston Globe reported.
Farwell could have faced the death penalty on the killing a witness or victim charge, but U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed prosecutors not to seek death in Farwell's case .
More news about the Sandra Birchmore case
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