Redacted videos of Birchmore police misconduct hearings released; ruling remains secret
The Massachusetts police oversight board has released redacted videos of the decertification proceedings against a former Stoughton deputy police chief, who faces misconduct allegations tied to the Sandra Birchmore case.
However, a final decision on whether Robert Devine may keep his license to work in law enforcement is still to come.
The police watchdog agency, the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, or POST, has accused Devine of coordinating a "sexual encounter" with Birchmore while he was on duty in December 2020.
Another former Stoughton police officer, Matthew Farwell, is accused of killing Birchmore, who was 23 and pregnant, in 2021 to hide a sexual relationship they began after she joined a police youth program as a teenager.
Devine, who oversaw the program, retired in 2022 amid an internal department investigation after Birchmore's death. He does not face criminal charges connected with the case.
The heavily redacted videos published by the commission cover more than 15 hours of testimony in Devine's decertification hearings over four days in June and July.
An initial portion of the videos was released over the summer, in which attorneys for the commission said Devine had called Birchmore on the day of her death. The hearings did not mention Birchmore by name, but referred to her by the initials "S.B."
Sandra Birchmore, of Canton, died in 2021. Though Massachusetts officials initially ruled her death a suicide, federal authorities three years later charged former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell with killing her. Bichmore is pictured here in a photograph from Facebook.Sandra Birchmore
"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]," POST attorney Shaun Martinez said during a June 5 hearing. "The Division's position is that the evidence overwhelmingly supports that these statements are untrue."
Kenneth J. Fishman, the retired judge who presided over Devine's hearings, closed the proceedings to the public after ruling that they must be kept confidential to honor protective orders covering sensitive evidence and witness testimony.
Fishman issued his initial recommendations on whether to revoke the former deputy chief's certification on Oct. 10, according to the Boston Globe.
His recommendations will remain secret until the full nine-member commission votes on whether to accept them. In past cases, the commission has not released initial disciplinary recommendations until it settled on a final ruling.
Devine has 30 days to object to the findings. In a hearing over the summer, his attorney, Attorney Robert Stowe, called the case against his client "a big lie."
The commission is next scheduled to meet on Nov. 20, though any deliberation on Devine's certification would also play out behind closed doors.
The commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Decertification carries a lifetime ban from working as a police officer in Massachusetts. The board, a product of police oversight reforms passed in 2020, has decertified 66 police officers since it began exercising its power to do so in 2023.
Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment on Feb. 4, 2021, in what state officials initially deemed a suicide. Farwell was arrested in 2024 after federal investigators determined the evidence was "inconsistent" with a suicide.
At the time of her death, Birchmore was eight to 10 weeks pregnant and carrying a boy, prosecutors revealed for the first time Tuesday. She believed Farwell was the father, according to prosecutors, but DNA testing ruled him out, the Globe has reported .
Farwell initially faced a single federal charge of killing a witness or victim. Prosecutors this week announced a second charge for causing the death of Birchmore's unborn son. He has pleaded not guilty.
The commission has already decertified Farwell, the officer accused of killing Birchmore, as well as his brother, William Farwell.
Though William Farwell does not face criminal charges, a Stoughton police internal investigation released in 2022 found he also had "multiple inappropriate physical encounters" with Birchmore and sent her explicit messages and photos while he was on duty.
Unlike Matthew Farwell, neither William Farwell nor Devine are accused of sexually abusing Bichmore as a child.
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, the program Devine supervised.
The lawsuit is on pause while Matthew Farwell's criminal case proceeds. He is scheduled to go to trial next October.
More news about the Sandra Birchmore case
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