Mass. high court to decide if Lowell murder suspects can be released over investigator misconduct
Three brothers accused of gunning down a man in his car were granted bail after their planned retrial was upended by revelations that one of the lead investigators may have been under the influence when he was involved in a fatal crash .
Billy Lee, Billoeum and Channa Phan were granted bail by Judge Christopher Barry-Smith following a Friday morning hearing in Lowell. Court records show the judge set bail at $25,000 cash, with conditions that they be subject to home confinement with GPS, turn in their passports and stay away from any witnesses in the case.
But prosecutors sought a pause in the proceedings while they appealed the ruling to a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, a request that was granted by Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt on Monday, court records show.
The brothers will remain in custody while the appeal is litigated.
Wendlandt ordered prosecutors to file their brief by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, and the Phans by 4 p.m. on Friday.
The Phan brothers were set to be tried a second time on murder charges in connection with the death of Tyrone Phet in Lowell in 2020 this January. But jury selection, and later their trial , was delayed amid revelations that Sgt. Scott Quigley had a blood alcohol level above the legal limit when he crashed into a transport van in December 2023, killing the van's passenger.
Prosecutors disclosed the information about Quigley for the first time on the second day of jury selection in the retrial. Defense lawyers pushed to delay the trial , and eventually filed a motion to dismiss the case, over prosecutorial misconduct related to Quigley .
In any criminal case, prosecutors are obligated to turn over evidence that could benefit a defendant or harm the credibility of an investigator. The late disclosure of the evidence about Quigley, the defense argues, violated that duty. The Middlesex County District Attorney's office, though, said they turned over the information as soon as they learned it.
Last week, Barry-Smith agreed to delay the trial so the issues surrounding Quigley and the late disclosure of the evidence regarding his involvement in the crash could be fully investigated. He did not set a new trial date.
That delay, the defense argued, warranted releasing the Phans on bail.
William Dolan, who represents Channa Phan, said Friday that it was "unjust to keep them there without bail at this point" after they had been held for five and a half years, according to Boston 25 News .
But Assistant Middlesex District Attorney Tom Brant argued the brothers' gang connection in Lowell and "atrocious and violent record" warranted keeping them behind bars, The Boston Herald reported.
"This has been a family-run business of drugs and violence," Brant said, according to the Herald.
The revelations about Quigley continued beyond the initial disclosure about his role in the crash that killed Angelo Schettino, the passenger in a transport van Quigley collided with when his cruiser crossed the center line in Woburn.
In one court filing this month, prosecutors revealed that an unsworn, non-attorney employee of the office had prior knowledge of the situation.
That employee disclosed that State Police Lt. Anthony DeLucia mentioned in 2024 that he had heard Quigley's blood-alcohol content was .11 at the time of the crash. DeLucia apparently said Quigley had been at a restaurant in Woburn with another trooper before the crash.
On top of that, prosecutors pointed the finger at State Police for not disclosing dash camera footage from the troopers who responded to the 2023 crash, which was published in The Boston Herald . During the footage, obtained by MassLive, an investigator can be heard saying, "if he's not (expletive)-faced, I'm not worried about it."
"It appears that Scott had his phone out," Sgt. Jennifer Penton can be heard saying. "They're looking out for him."
The revelations regarding Quigley have set off four separate investigations: an Internal Affairs investigation by the State Police, a third-party review from the firm 21CP Solutions, an investigation of the district attorney's office led by a retired judge and a criminal investigation led by the Suffolk County District Attorney's office.
A status conference in the case is scheduled for June 2.
Read more about the case
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
