We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. In one 2013 complaint, for example, a civilian alleged they watched police officer Charles Monfett pull up next to his brother in his police cruiser and hand him a bag of pot., We also overheard how it was just recovered from someone at Jones Point, the complaint alleges. Nine of those 12 are in specialized assignments other than patrol operations. If that doesn't work, move to step 2: literally shoot the messenger In January, Holyoke settled the police brutality suit against the city and officers for $65,000. In his video, Roca references alleged abuse of overtime pay. var photocredit = photocredit.toUpperCase(); Irving Concepcion filed a complaint against the Holyoke, Massachusetts, police in 2016, saying they pulled him over with their guns drawn, yanked him out of his car and slammed him down on the hood. Two officers did respond to say that department policies prohibit them from speaking to the press without permission from higher-ups. For example, he characterized it as a workplace where now-former Police Chief Manny Febo favorites were not disciplined despite losing weapons and facing restraining orders, according to the accusations. In 2016, Irving Concepcion says the Holyoke police pulled him over with their guns drawn, yanked him out of his car and slammed him down on the hood. 1 Catholic Memorial; roundup/list of scores, As Adderall shortage continues, DEA plans to limit some telemedicine prescriptions, House where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Columbia University permanently drops SAT, ACT admissions requirement, The Waterbed Doctor: California retailer lays claim to retro bed with nearly 40 years of service, sales, Felonious Florida podcast: Missing teenage girl leads to several cases of child sex trafficking. A vehicle was stolen in Granby, Mass., that vehicle was driven by suspects who drove around and broke into parked vehicles in driveways in South Hadley. Commonwealth of Massachusetts Civil Service Commission . Current Police Chief David Pratt suspended Roca in March and then recommended that the mayor terminate Roca. of Roca also took issue with the fact that a Nov. 5 hearing on his case took place at City Hall without him. var photocredit = "'Screenshot from YouTube.' They want to send a message to other officers: Dont be like Roca, because this is exactly whats going to happen to you., Febo said in a statement released Tuesday that it is not standard practice for police departments to comment on issues that have an ongoing personnel investigation for violations of policy. Project Advances, What Happened to the Money?' Mayor Joshua Garcia also declined to sit down for an interview with NEPM. As of March 9, Roca has been suspended from the department due to his violation of a rule prohibiting officers from criticizing the department on social media platforms. Concepcion alleged that he returned again and again for hours at a time until an HPD supervisor finally interviewed him three weeks later. In other words, having the power to question the suspect, having the power to question the officer.. He was deployed to Bosnia from 2003-2004 where he worked with anti-corruption and security forces. Office Location: 57 Suffolk St. Suite 200 Holyoke, MA 01040 Call Us The man alleged there was a problem with the arrest report Leahy later filed, saying it contained outright lies and falsehoods. He said he never had a gun and never even stepped into the street. Cannabis company Trulieve will pay $14,502 after reaching a settlement with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration over the death of an employee who worked at Trulieve's Holyoke cultivation site. Roca said he expected to face discipline after posting the video but was invested in calling attention to what he saw as problems within the department. NEPM has obtained a decades worth of civilian complaints against HPD officers and the departments own internal investigations of them. In it, he alleged that superior officers falsify overtime pay, have protected each other from punishment for misconduct and have fostered a culture of favoritism and racism when it comes to promotion. Officers suspended for talking to media about corruption Play all audios: Loading. Compare the best Police Misconduct lawyers near Holyoke, MA today. He saidthat ultimately there was sufficient cause to terminate Roca. It should be known as Corrupt City," he said in the video. "We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we The 69 complaints that NEPM obtained are just the ones that civilians managed to file with the HPD in the first place. Roca said that he has only received one formal and one informal complaint during his five years on the force a claim that appears to be corroborated by an internal affairs log the Gazette has obtained through a public records request. He expressed frustration that former Mayor Alex Morse did not do enough to address issues of racism during his tenure. Springfield this past year reinstituted a civilian Board of Police Commissioners to oversee the department and decide on officer discipline. HOLYOKE, Mass. Last fall, five of the remaining six members of the board quit after they wereblocked from reviewing the police department's internal reporton the police killing of city resident Miguel Estrella. The suspected shooter is in custody. Holyoke Police Department | Holyoke MA - Facebook He said the promoted individual allegedly lost two weapons as an officer. He went on to say that one weapon had allegedly been lost and another had been stolen from the officers home, an incident which Roca claimed was covered up.. They kept trying to use the grabbing of the genitals to kind of quiet me down as a form of punishment and pain, Concepcion said. Youre supposed to act a certain way, talk a certain way. In 2014, the president of the patrol-officer union wrote a scathing letter to the City Council denouncing Councilors Rebecca Lisi and Jossie Valentin for marching in a Black Lives Matter protest where he said some protesters used anti-police rhetoric., Since that moment, it was very evident to me that some members of the Holyoke Police Department were not happy with me and with Rebecca, Valentin told NEPM in an interview from Puerto Rico, where she now lives. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Service, a Creative Commons 'Officer shuffle': Some ousted cops find jobs at new departments in Mass. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. The city settled that lawsuit for $65,000 in 2020. Febo did not use any names in his statement, but addressed an incident 10 years ago where rifles were lost. And in Amherst, records show that during a 12-year period, theAmherst Police Department investigated 16 civilian complaints; in only one of those cases did an officer face discipline. Officers have. var photocredit = "'GAZETTE FILE PHOTO' 'Holyoke police officer parks in the train station on Main Street on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. The city attorney suggested that under the circumstances the city was getting off easy. Carla Sinclair 11:00 am Tue Mar 9, 2021. Published: 11/16/2021 9:42:49 PM HOLYOKE Last week, the city's acting mayor fired a police officer who earlier this year posted a viral video on social media alleging corruption and. As for Roca, he said he doesnt regret posting the video or making the allegations. Police Capt. In response to a public records request, the HPD has now turned over the 69 investigations it conducted from 2010 through 2019 into civilian complaints. But for Concepcion, the man who alleged police abused their authority pulling him over in 2016, thats exactly the kind of work Holyoke and other cities should be doing. (AP) A Massachusetts police officer who posted a video online alleging corruption within his department says he has been placed on paid administrative leave after refusing to take it down and will probably lose his job. They took my gun and my badge and kicked me out of the email system, Roca said during an interview at the time. of Now that Roca has filed an appeal, the Civil Service Commission will decide whether the termination holds up. In his internal report on the incident, HPDs internal affairs officer, Manuel Reyes, said police pulled over Concepcion for a traffic violation. Police misconduct: Discipline records for thousands of cops uncovered In a legal opinion sent to Murphy, which Roca provided to the Gazette, Assistant City Solicitor Kathleen Degnan said that Rocas public statements were not protected by the First Amendment, and therefore the police chiefs order for him to remove the video was lawful. Howie Carr: From lab scandal to pool death, a statie's sad story He also said that academics have struggled to answer the question of whether a complaint against an officer represents a problem officer, a productive officer or some combination of the two. Roca said he was suspended for violating the departments social media policy, which bars officers from criticizing the department on social media platforms. He said that is because he is a proactive police officer who tries to engage in crime fighting., I was a very proactive officer, I would do my job, I tried to do traffic stops, he told the Gazette. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. This video posted online by Former Holyoke Police Officer Rafael Roca may well have been lost to history and future litigants contending with the police misconduct in Western MA if it had not been rescued by the Internet Archive (which is currently fighting off a vexatious lawsuit filed by a greedy publishing monopolist lobbying group which wants to burn down the Internet's proverbial 'Library . During the semester however if an accommodation //LBtag_id.innerHTML = ' Buy this Image'; Holyoke Police Department Friday: 03/25/2022 Juvenile (16) from Springfield is charged with: Possession of Class A Possession of Class A to Distribute Possession of Ammunition without a FID. Daily Hampshire Gazette. The investigating officers found that Roca had violated four department policies: failing to comply with an order to take his video down, unbecoming conduct, criticism of the department and social media rules. I wasnt looking for them to be on my side, but youd think if somebody was making allegations about their city they may have questions themselves.. In the video, Roca also alleged that department leadership has covered up the facts surrounding several instances when weapons have gone missing from the department. One is a female who is being trained to investigate sensitive crimes involving children, females and domestic violence. Following Rocas allegations, the Gazette obtained and analyzed Holyoke Police Department records tracking overtime pay and hours. According to Roca, supervisors in the department have lied on the stand. I stand behind the video and what I said in it. I talked with two police chiefs in Minnesota about what happened when Tyre Nichols was stopped by Memphis police officers and fatally beaten last month. AMHERST Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone will retire in May after nearly 14 years leading a department he joined upon graduating from AMHERST Unions at the University of Massachusetts are contending that more than 100 state jobs, and their accompanying benefits, are being WALTERBORO, S.C. One of the last pieces of a legal dynasty that doled out justice in rural South Carolina for decades crumbled Friday as lawyer WASHINGTON President Joe Biden exudes confidence as the next race for the White House approaches.During last months State of the Union address Holyoke police officer parks in the train station on Main Street on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. We reenter the clubhouse, as we go back to the pool table the brother that just received the pot starts to brag about having a brother as a Holyoke police officer and that he gets stuff like pot and can make some money that way., In its investigation, the HPD found the allegations against Monfett not sustained because there was insufficient evidence to either prove or disprove the allegation.. That decision was made after aHolyoke police officer publicly alleged corruptionwithin the HPD and aDaily Hampshire Gazetteinvestigation found whatsome characterized as excessive overtimein the department, including among some of its highest-paid officers. Concepcion is not the first to allege that the HPD resisted taking his complaint. Boing Boing uses cookies and analytics trackers, and is supported by advertising, merchandise But he said other studies have found that civilian review boards have a minimal effect on accountability. Within the department, he said he had been shamed. Suspected. var sellablestring4 = "GAZETTE FILE PHOTO"; sales Holyoke police officer alleges corruption within department After Customers Paid Large Deposits for Home Projects, Contractor Files for Bankruptcy, How Much Snow Has Fallen in Your Area So Far, The House Where JonBenet Ramsey Was Found Dead Is Listed for Sale at Nearly $7M, FIRST ALERT: Wintry Mix Keeps Falling as Storm Hits New England (Live Radar). Concepcion said his experience with the HPDs internal affairs system shows that there isnt any accountability within the department. But now he finds out if he will be charged with misdemeanor furnishing of alcohol and reckless endangerment of a. In this still from a video Roca posted to YouTube on March 7, 2021, Roca alleges there is corruption and racism in the Holyoke Police Department. Subscribe Today, Amherst Police Chief Livingstone stepping down in May, Unions: UMass putting 100 jobs in jeopardy with privatization plan, Murdaughs fall from grace ends in life sentence for murder, Biden leaving room to change his mind on reelection. He says he was consistently singled out for vocalizing his opposition to the police chief, made to repeat pieces of training and attacked via email for not supporting one supervisors protest against police reform. All rights reserved (About Us). In this still from a video Roca posted to YouTube on March 7, 2021, Roca alleges there is corruption and racism in the Holyoke Police Department. Roca said that as a result, supervisors have given him a bad image that has influenced others in the department. City hires firm to audit Holyoke Police Department He wrote that because the boy refused several times to place his hand behind his back so that he could be handcuffed, Officer Romero was forced to place him on the ground.. The city of Holyoke is not alone in resisting transparency, and I think thats the only way to describe an 18-month delay in providing access to records that clearly were public, said Jeffrey Pyle, an attorney with the firm Prince Lobel Tye LLP who specializes in media and First Amendment law. Growing up Puerto Rican in the Flats neighborhood of Holyoke one of the citys majority-Hispanic lower wards Maldonado Velez said he heard plenty of stories from those whom that system harmed. Roca was immediately placed on administrative leave as the department conducted an internal investigation. When told of NEPMs findings that only three officers had civilian complaints sustained against them over a decade, Valentin said shes not surprised. In the departments investigation, police said they pulled him over for running a stop sign, then tried to tow his car after learning his license was suspended and registration revoked. var sellablestring2 = "STAFF PHOTO"; Roca also told the newspaper he plans to file a lawsuit over how he was treated. Leon Davis, Springfield Police Department. In fact, a year later, Valentin filed a civilian complaint against an HPD officer over his rudeness to her at the scene of a car crash involving her wife treatment Valentin alleged was related to her political stances. I stand behind the video and what I said in it.. Audit finds Holyoke Police Department poses 'substantial risk' to city
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