Worcester police officers were accused of sexually assaulting women, engaging in sex acts with prostitutes, and other “egregious misconduct” in a new scathing report from the feds.
The Department of Justice on Monday released a bombshell report about the Worcester Police Department, alleging that the city and police department have committed civil rights violations.
“Based on this investigation, DOJ has reasonable cause to believe that WPD and the City engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of their rights under the Constitution and federal law,” reads the Department of Justice report.
“First, WPD uses excessive force,” the DOJ wrote. “Second, WPD engages in outrageous government conduct by permitting undercover officers to participate in sexual contact with women suspected of being involved in the commercial sex trade.”
The Department of Justice also raised “serious concerns” that Worcester police officers have sexually assaulted women under threat of arrest and engaged in other sexual misconduct.
“Excessive force and sexual misconduct at the hands of officers who took an oath to serve and protect deeply diminishes the public’s trust in its sworn officers,” Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. “The actions by certain officers who engaged in this conduct are not a reflection of the many hard working and ethical officers at the WPD who did not engage in such misconduct or the thousands of police officers around the Commonwealth who serve with honor every day.
“While the findings announced in today’s report are serious and sobering, today we start a new chapter,” Levy added. “We look forward to working with the City of Worcester and the new leadership of the Worcester Police Department to implement reforms that will prevent these kinds of incidents from reoccurring.”
Several women reported that they had been sexually assaulted by WPD officers, according to the feds.
For example, one woman who was involved in the commercial sex trade said a WPD officer sexually assaulted her after pulling up in a rental car, announcing he was a police officer, flashing his gun, showing her a bag of drugs, and threatening to arrest her on a drug charge if she did not provide oral sex.
“Though she wanted to jump out of the car, she felt she had no choice but to submit to the officer’s demands,” the DOJ report reads. “… He gave her $40 and remarked that she was lucky to receive any money at all. According to the woman, on at least two additional occasions the same officer picked her up in different rental cars and forced her to perform oral sex.”
Worcester cops are also accused of using excessive force that violates the Fourth Amendment. Officers have unreasonably deployed Tasers, used police dogs, and struck people in the head, according to the feds.
On one such occasion, a WPD officer unreasonably used a Taser to drive-stun a 55-year-old man inside a church in retaliation for criticizing police, the feds allege.
“The officer demanded that he relax his arms to be cuffed, and then, without warning and in front of children and congregants, delivered a five second drive-stun to the man’s back,” the DOJ report reads. “The man was arrested but ultimately acquitted of all charges, including disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery on a police officer. WPD’s internal investigation found no wrongdoing by the officers.”
The Justice Department opened this investigation two years ago. The investigation was conducted by the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section and the Civil Rights Unit of the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The report acknowledges the changes already made by the city and WPD, and identifies additional remedial measures that the department believes are necessary to address its findings.
“This is the first time the department has issued a pattern or practice finding involving sexual misconduct by officers,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“We look forward to working with city officials to institute reforms that build on their own preliminary efforts but that will fully bring an end to these unlawful and unconstitutional practices,” Clarke added. “The Justice Department is committed to standing firm against sexual misconduct in all its forms.”
A representative of Worcester City Manager Eric Batista said he expects to release a statement in coming days.
Brian T. Kelly, a lawyer representing the police department, said police and city officials have cooperated with the federal investigation. He called the report “unfair, inaccurate and biased.”
“Instead of identifying individual officers who could — and should — be prosecuted if these serious allegations were true, DOJ has prepared a report by civil lawyers with no prosecutorial experience which makes incredibly broad allegations but fails to identify a single corrupt officer,” Kelley said in a written statement.
The legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts called these “alarming findings” and pushed for reforms.
“While we welcome the Department of Justice’s report, it’s not the end of the story,” Jessie Rossman of the ACLU said in a statement. “We urge local officials to work together with the DOJ to adopt and implement reforms to address the egregious misconduct described in the report. We also call on local and state officials to follow up on these findings to pursue their own investigations into misconduct in Worcester.
“This is critical because such misconduct may undermine the integrity of numerous criminal cases in which the officers referenced in the report were involved,” Rossman added. “As the Supreme Judicial Court has made clear, the Commonwealth has a duty to investigate and disclose all exculpatory evidence — not just those examples listed in the report — to defendants whose cases may be affected. Prosecutors must now fulfill that duty.”
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