Karen Read trial for murder of John O'Keefe

[BensAllergies]

The defense filed a bombshell this morning claiming that jurors reached out to them saying that they unanimously acquitted on second degree murder and leaving the scene of an injury/death. They were split on the DUI manslaughter charge.

The defense is asking the Court to dismiss those two charges due to double jeopardy. They say that the jury should have been polled on which charges they were hung before a hung jury was called and the jury dismissed. If they had, it appears that Karen Read would have been acquitted on the greatest charge and lesser charge, with only the manslaughter charge moving forward to a retrial. In other words, the jury agreed that Karen did not intentionally kill her boyfriend but disagreed that she did in negligence due to drinking and driving.

[TN-peach]

11 minutes ago, BensAllergies said:

The defense filed a bombshell this morning claiming that jurors reached out to them saying that they unanimously acquitted on second degree murder and leaving the scene of an injury/death. They were split on the DUI manslaughter charge.

The defense is asking the Court to dismiss those two charges due to double jeopardy. They say that the jury should have been polled on which charges they were hung before a hung jury was called and the jury dismissed. If they had, it appears that Karen Read would have been acquitted on the greatest charge and lesser charge, with only the manslaughter charge moving forward to a retrial. In other words, the jury agreed that Karen did not intentionally kill her boyfriend but disagreed that she did in negligence due to drinking and driving.

Yep.  Double jeopardy should attach if what the defense says is correct. 

[moreorlessnu]

On 7/2/2024 at 12:17 PM, ifosterkittens said:

I understand Officer Proctor being relieved of duty is just the first step in determining if they can fire him, and not a done deal, but do you think it would have happened if Karen had been convicted on any of the charges? The DA's office had said yesterday after the hung jury that the DA would try the case again, do you think this will give Lally pause? Lally brought this case forward with so many issues I don't know that Proctor's employment status really matters to him.

Michael Proctor was suspended without pay today. 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/08/metro/karen-read-lead-investigator-michael-proctor-to-face-hearing/ 

Full article in the spoiler below. Yes, the Boston Globe did not proofread the article before posting with at least 3 misspellings. 

Spoiler

Embattled State Police Trooper Michael Proctor was suspended without pay “effective immediately” on Monday after a closed-door hearing to determine his immediate future with the agency, officials said.

State Police officials said Proctor appeared for his duty-status hearing before a board of “three commissioned officers,” who recommended that Proctor be suspended without pay. Colonel John E. Mawn, who leads the agency, accepted the recommendation, officials said.

The primary investigator in the Karen Read case, Proctor was relieved of his duties as a detective in Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office after his crude and demeaning text messages about Read came to light at her murder trial.

Neither a lawyer for Proctor nor a spokesperson for his union immediately returned requests for comment.

Proctor’s removal was announced hours after a judge declared a mistrial in the high-profile case. Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of striking her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him for dead outiside a Canton home on Jan. 29, 2022.

Read has pleaded not guillty. The prosecution has said it will retry the case, and Judge Beverly Cannone set a hearing date for July 22.

Proctor was transfered to a desk job at Troop H in South Boston. Monday’s duty status hearing was held virtually and wasn’t public, a standard department practice.

Proctor’s superiors had four options: restore Proctor to full duty, place him on limited duty, suspend him with pay, or suspend him without pay, according to the agency.

An internal affairs investigation into Proctor’s conduct remains ongoing, officials have said.

“At the conclusion of an internal affairs investigation, the Department may pursue charges that would be adjudicated by a State Police Trial Board,” officials said.

Travis Andersen of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.

The DA is going to immediately say they are going to retry the case. It would look very bad otherwise. Whether they ultimately do is up in the air. 

I don't think anything would have changed for Michael Proctor regardless of the verdict. No one (who is speaking publicly) knows for sure, but the thinking is that the Feds are investigating corruption in the District Attorney's office (Michael Morissey is the DA for Norfolk County: https://www.mass.gov/person/michael-w-morrissey-norfolk-county-district-attorney).

The Feds may have also been investigating the Sandra Birchmore case: 

 

It is thought that, as part of their investigation, the Feds came upon the Michael Proctor texts, the butt dialing, Jen McCabe's "hos long to die in the cold" 2:27am text, etc. The Feds provided this information to both the prosecution and the defense, with the thinking that the prosecution would see not to move forward given this evidence. The DA's office moved forward with the case, regardless. 

This man analyzes the testimony and points out where the McCabe/Alberts/Higgins witnesses are lying. It's fascinating: https://www.youtube.com/@empathymethod

I don't know if it's Adam Lally's decision to retry the case, or if that comes from his boss, Michael Morissey. If the Feds release their findings, and their findings include corruption as part of the decision to move forward with the Karen Read case, then...

I've wondered if Michael Proctor owed Brian Albert a favor and this is why Proctor got involved (and torpedoed his career), or if this happens all the time, that someone contacts him and effectively says, "Make it look like *this person* committed the crime", and Proctor is so used to doing that, that he just does it....because he does it all the time. Scary to think of that.

Another wrinkle, Michael Proctor was the lead investigator/case manager on the Brian Walsh case. Mr. Walsh is charged with killing and dismembering his wife, Anna. Her body has never been found. They were married with young children. 

 

 

[moreorlessnu]

5 hours ago, BensAllergies said:

The defense filed a bombshell this morning claiming that jurors reached out to them saying that they unanimously acquitted on second degree murder and leaving the scene of an injury/death. They were split on the DUI manslaughter charge.

The corresponding Boston Globe article is in the spoiler below:

Spoiler

A week after a Superior Court judge declared a mistrial in the murder case against Karen Read, her lawyers went on the offensive Monday, claiming that jurors had unanimously determined she was not guilty of two charges while deadlocking on the third.

In an affidavit filed in Norfolk Superior Court, Alan Jackson, a lawyer for Read, asked Judge Beverly Cannone to dismiss the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on a charge of manslaughter while operating under the influence, Read’s lawyers said.

As the lead investigator in the case, State Trooper Michael Proctor, was suspended without pay by the agency on Monday after disparaging remarks he made about Read came to light at the trial, the motion to dismiss marked a new chapter in a legal saga that has transfixed the region and provided tantalizing insight into the jury’s views on eight weeks of testimony.

In the motion, Jackson said he was contacted July 2 by a person identified as Juror A who said the charge of second-degree murder against Read was “off the table” during the panel’s deliberations.

“Juror A told me that the result of the deliberations was that the jury unanimously agreed that Karen Read is NOT GUILTY of Count 1 (second-degree murder),” Jackson wrote. “Juror A was emphatic that Count 1 (second-degree murder) was ‘off the table,’ and that all 12 jurors were in agreement that she was NOT GUILTY of such crime.”

None of the jurors have spoken publicly, and Cannone ordered Monday that a list of their names be impounded for at least 10 days.

The Norfolk district attorney, Michael W. Morrissey, said immediately after Cannone declared a mistrial on July 1 that prosecutors would retry Read on all charges. On Monday, Morrissey’s spokesperson said prosecutors are “examining the motion in anticipation of filing a response. We look forward to picking a new trial date on July 22.” A status conference in the case is slated for that date.

Prosecutors allege that Read drunkenly and intentionally backed her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend, Boston police Officer John O’Keefe, early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Canton home following a night of bar-hopping. She returned to the scene hours later and found O’Keefe’s snow-covered body on the front lawn, repeatedly shouting “I hit him” in the presence of first responders, witnesses testified.

Attorneys for Read asserted that she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the Canton home, owned at the time by a fellow Boston police officer who had been out drinking with the couple and others, where he was fatally beaten in the basement before his body was planted on the lawn.

In Monday’s motion to dismiss, Read’s lawyers said that while one juror contacted Jackson directly, they heard from two other jurors through intermediaries.

Jackson wrote that he could “positively identify” Juror A based on “my conversation” with that person, as well as “that juror’s description of who he/she is, where he/she was seated, and certain identifying information (name / occupation) disclosed during the voir dire process.”

Jackson said that juror told him the panel unanimously agreed that Read was not guilty of leaving the scene of personal injury and death. When jurors told Cannone last week that they remained at an impasse, she declared a mistrial without asking the foreperson if they had reached unanimous agreement on any of the counts, Jackson said.

“Had the Court so inquired, it appears clear that NOT GUILTY verdicts would have been recorded for Count 1 and Count 3,” Jackson wrote. “Ms. Read was denied her right to receive those verdicts in her favor.”

David Yannetti, another lawyer for Read, said in a separate affidavit that two other jurors provided insight into the deliberations on the charge of manslaughter while operating under the influence.

Over the weekend, a person identified as Informant C sent him screenshots of a text exchange the person had with someone identified as Intermediary C. The intermediary had texted the informant what a second juror had said in a Zoom conversation, Yannetti wrote.

“Manslaughter started polling at 6/6 then ended deadlock at 4 no 8 yes,” one of the screenshots said, according to Yannetti’s affidavit. “Ultimately, [he/she] voted no because the cause of death was twofold of hypothermia and head injury of which [he/she] was convinced that the vehicle did not cause both.”

Yannetti said another person, identified as Intermediary B, sent him screenshots purportedly texted by a third juror.

“It was not guilty on second degree,” that juror wrote, per Yannetti’s affidavit. “And split in half for the second charge.”

That juror said deliberations at one point turned into a “bully match” after Cannone told the jury to keep deliberating despite their deadlock.

“I thought the prosecution didn’t prove the case,” the juror wrote, according to the affidavit. “No one thought she hit him on purpose.”

Yannetti said he could confirm that the second juror was on the panel based on the juror’s first name, which the intermediary provided. He said he could confirm the third juror based on the description “given to me by Informant C and confirmed by the redacted content of” the relevant text exchange.

Neither Cannone nor prosecutors had responded in court to the defense dismissal motion as of Monday afternoon.

Separately Monday, State Police announced that Proctor, had been suspended without pay following a duty status hearing. Proctor had been relieved of duty last week just hours after Cannone declared a mistrial.

Proctor admitted at trial to sending a number of crude and demeaning texts about Read to coworkers and friends, which the defense seized on to bolster their contention that the probe was marred by corruption and that investigators immediately focused on Read as the culprit without considering other possibilities.

Proctor testified that his “juvenile” texts in no way affected the integrity of the investigation.

“Shame on you,” Jackson said to him during a contentious cross-examination.

Governor Maura Healey also weighed in, telling reporters that what she’d heard regarding the texts was “terrible” and tarnished the integrity of law enforcement.

John R. Ellement and Sean Cotter of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.

 

[moreorlessnu]

There's a local TV station that puts on a 1/2 hour segment every night (or most nights) regarding the Karen Read case. It's call "Canton Confidential". The YouTube link is here: 

 

 

[moreorlessnu]

The judge in the Karen Read case impounds jury list: 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/09/metro/karen-read-case-judge-impounds-jury-list-says-irreparable-injury-could-befall-them-otherwise/

Spoiler

A Norfolk Superior Court judge on Monday ordered that the names of the jurors who served on the murder trial of Karen Read be kept secret for at least 10 days, citing a risk of “irreparable injury” to the panelists should their names be disclosed at this juncture.

“The Supreme Judicial Court has recognized that the safety of jurors is crucial to the fair functioning of the judicial system,” Judge Beverly J. Cannone wrote in an order impounding the jury list. “The [Read] proceedings continue to be the daily subject of commentary on various social media platforms. People associated with the case have been charged with intimidation.”

Cannone said the jurors could be subject to harm if their names are released at this stage.

“The Court finds that good cause exists to impound the list identifying the names of empaneled jurors in the trial of this case,” Cannone wrote. “The Court further concludes that there is a risk of immediate and irreparable injury should the list be made available to the public at this time.”

The judge said the impoundment order “shall expire ten days on the date of issuance, unless otherwise ordered by the Court, for good cause shown, pursuant to” court rules.

A mistrial was declared July 1 when jurors failed to reach a verdict in the high-profile trial after eight weeks of testimony. Prosecutors intend to retry Read, with a status conference set for July 22.

Read, 44, of Mansfield, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. Prosecutors allege she rammed her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, after dropping him off outside a Canton home following a night of bar-hopping. She returned to the scene hours later and found his snow-covered body on the front lawn, repeatedly shouting “I hit him” in the presence of first responders, witnesses testified.

Attorneys for Read said she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the Canton house, owned at the time by a fellow Boston officer who had been out drinking with the couple and others, where he was fatally beaten in the basement before his body was planted on the lawn.

Cannone’s impoundment order came hours after Read’s attorneys filed an explosive motion to dismiss two charges against her: second-degree murder and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. The lawyers claimed that three jurors had indicated after the trial that the panel unanimously agreed she was not guilty of those charges but remained divided on vehicular manslaughter.

The defense team said Cannone had to ask the jurors if they had reached verdicts on any of the individual charges before declaring a mistrial after they said they remained at an impasse.

One juror contacted the defense directly, while two others provided information through intermediaries, according to legal filings. Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey’s office said Monday that prosecutors planned to file a response to the defense motion; the government hadn’t responded as of Tuesday morning.

Cannone in her impoundment order was referring to Aidan Kearney, the controversial blogger known as “Turtleboy,” when she mentioned that people had been charged with intimidation. Kearney has championed Read’s claims of innocence and has pleaded not guilty to charges of intimidating and harassing witnesses in the case.

He’s due back in court Wednesday afternoon for a pretrial hearing, records show.

Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.

An excellent review, by attorneys Melanie Little and Mark Bederow, of the motion filed by Karen Read's attorneys:

 

Edited July 9 by moreorlessnu

[moreorlessnu]

A 4th juror came forward stating that the jury found Karen Read not guilty of 2 of the 3 charges: https://www.wcvb.com/article/karen-read-trial-defense-motion-dismiss-murder-charge-mistrial-fourth-juror/61557225

Kevin Albert, a Canton police officer and brother of Brian Albert, owner of the home where Officer John O'Keefe's body was found, was placed on paid administrative leave in June (during the Karen Read trial), but it was only reported today.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/kevin-albert-canton-police-leave-karen-read-testimony/61550210

Meanwhile, Chris Albert, Canton selectman and brother of both Brian and Kevin Albert, issued a very weak apology at the most recent Canton Select Board meeting: 

Chris Albert also hired Judge Beverly Cannone's brother to defend him in a 1994 hit and run case where a man was killed: https://tbdailynews.com/canton-coverup-part-232-police-report-from-chris-alberts-1994-hit-and-run-homicide-shows-he-hired-judge-beverly-cannones-expensive-attorney-brother-police-never-questioned-him-about-drunk-drivin/

Seriously, I could not make this up if I tried...

[TN-peach]

I seriously thought the Murdaugh trial had a lot of this person knows this person is related to this person because of small southern town..... but no the northern town trial beat the southern small town by a mile. 

[moreorlessnu]

Updates on Karen Read and Sandra Birchmore.

Karen Read

John O'Keefe's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Karen Read and the two bars that served them the night of John O'Keefe's death.

The Boston Globe article is here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/08/26/metro/okeefe-family-files-wrongful-death-lawsuit-against-karen-read-bars-where-they-drank-night-death/?p1=BGSearch_Overlay_Results

....And cut and pasted in the spoiler below:

Spoiler

O’Keefe family files wrongful death lawsuit against Karen Read, bars they went to the night of John O’Keefe’s death

By Travis Andersen Globe Staff, Updated August 26, 2024, 2:25 p.m.

The family of the man Karen Read is accused of killing by drunkenly hitting him with her SUV in January 2022 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Read and the two bars that allegedly served her alcohol on the night in question when she was visibly drunk.

The civil lawsuit, filed Monday by the family of Boston police Officer John O’Keefe in Plymouth Superior Court, also alleges that Read, 44, of Mansfield, “outrageously created a false narrative” after his death on Jan. 29, 2022.

Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. Her first trial ended in a mistrial in July after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Her retrial is slated for January.

Lawyers for Read didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Much of the civil complaint mirrors the assertions of prosecutors, who say that an intoxicated Read intentionally ran into O’Keefe, known as JJ, after dropping him off outside a Canton home following a night of bar-hopping and heavy drinking.

Judge in Karen Read case rejects defense motion to dismiss two charges, including second-degree murder. In ruling, Karen Read judge says foreperson gave no ‘indication of agreement’ among jurors. Judge in Karen Read case sets January date for new trial

O’Keefe was killed as a “direct and/or proximate cause of Read’s drunk driving” the complaint states.

Read’s lawyers say she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the home, owned at the time by a fellow Boston officer, where he was fatally beaten in the basement before his body was planted on the front lawn. The defense’s narrative has been promoted by Aidan Kearney, a blogger known as Turtleboy who has written extensively about the case and is charged with harassing witnesses. He has pleaded not guilty.

The lawsuit asserts that Read “knowingly and deliberately changed her story and fabricated a conspiracy knowing the same to be false. She publicly communicated this false narrative thereby frustrating Justice for JJ. Such false narrative caused the Plaintiffs aggravated emotional distress.”

O’Keefe had been raising his niece and nephew after the deaths of his sister and brother-in-law from cancer, and the suit asserts that Read subjected his niece, then 14, to a traumatic experience in the hours after her uncle’s death.

In the niece’s presence, “Read spoke on speaker phone to various people between 4:30 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022,” the complaint states. “At all relevant times ... [the niece] heard defendant Read say, ‘(JJ) never came home. ... Maybe I did something. ... Maybe a snow plow hit him. ... Maybe I had hit him. ... Maybe I hit him. ... (We) were in an argument. ... Maybe he got hit by a snow plow.”

Read, who had woken the niece up before the calls, left the girl home alone around 5 a.m., the suit says.

“Defendant Read’s conduct was extreme and outrageous, beyond the bounds of decency and was utterly intolerable,” the suit says. “Then, after JJ was declared dead, defendant Read came to the family house and feigned concern. Rather, it became clear that defendant Read was only there to collect her belongings and to take possession of the murder weapon,” her vehicle.

In addition to Read, the other named defendants are two Canton bars, C.F. McCarthy’s and the Waterfall Bar & Grill, which she visited with O’Keefe and others in the hours before his death.

McCarthy’s served Read seven alcoholic beverages between 8:58 p.m. and 10:29 p.m., and she showed “signs of intoxication” at the bar, the complaint states.

The bar “acted with gross negligence,” the complaint alleges. McCarthy’s declined to comment.

Later at the Waterfall, Read was served a shot and one mixed drink between 10:54 p.m. and 11:54 p.m., despite showing signs of intoxication, the complaint alleges. She also walked into the establishment with a glass from McCarthy’s, according to the complaint.

“The defendant Waterfall acted with willful, wanton, and reckless disregard for the safety of others when it served an intoxicated defendant Read,” the suit states.

A representative from the bar couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

This breaking news story will be updated when more information is released.

Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.

The actual complaint is embedded in this article: https://www.boston.com/news/crime/2024/08/26/karen-read-case-john-okeefes-family-files-wrongful-death-suit/

 

Sandra Birchmore

Former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell indicted on charges he killed Sandra Birchmore in 2021. The documents filed in the case have some pretty terrible details of rape, abuse, etc. They can be easily found online, but wanted to provide a warning.

Short 4 minute video here: 

 

Longer 22 minute video here: 

Boston Globe article about Sandra Birchmore here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/09/06/metro/sandra-birchmore-case-key-players-stoughton/?p1=BGSearch_Overlay_Results&p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link

...And cut and pasted in the spoiler below:

Spoiler

In Sandra Birchmore case, here are the key players

By Izzy Bryars Globe Correspondent, Updated September 6, 2024, 4:25 p.m.

Former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell, 38, was indicted last month on federal charges that he strangled a pregnant, 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore to death in February 2021 and made it look like a suicide. Farwell was accused of having a yearslong sexual relationship with Birchmore, beginning when she was 15 and he was 27, and she told friends he was the father of her unborn child. Farwell first met Birchmore in 2012 at the now defunct youth police program known as the “Stoughton Police Explorers Academy.”

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner initially ruled her death a suicide, and in 2022 the Norfolk district attorney’s office said investigators found no evidence of foul play. Since Farwell’s indictment, Stoughton police, the Norfolk district attorney, and the medical examiner’s office have faced scrutiny over their knowledge of the relationship and their initial handling of the death investigation.

Meanwhile, Birchmore’s estate has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Farwell and two other former Stoughton officers, his twin brother, William, and a former deputy chief that used to run the Explorers program, Robert Devine. The Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission has also accused them of having an inappropriate relationship with Birchmore. They deny the allegations.

Here are the key players in the case.

Sandra Birchmore, victim

Canton police found Birchmore — who was 10 weeks pregnant — dead in her apartment on Feb. 4, 2021, after responding to a well-being check. She was hanging from a doorknob with a gym bag strap. Stoughton police had earlier found that Birchmore struggled with mental health issues, but friends and family of Birchmore previously told the Globe and police that she was excited about her pregnancy.

Cleaning out her apartment in the days after her death, Birchmore’s family members found a new baby stroller and other baby items recently delivered.

Sandra Birchmore. Former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell has been federally indicted on charges that he killed Birchmore. Family photo

Birchmore was raised by her mother and grandmother, who both died in 2016. She enrolled in the Explorers program just before she turned 13. It was there that she met Matthew and William Farwell, who were instructors.

She graduated from Stoughton High School in 2015, and military records show that she spent two months in the Army Reserve after graduation. In 2018, she completed her studies at Brockton’s Massasoit Community College.

She was working as an aide at East Elementary School in Sharon when she was allegedly killed. Three of her friends have told the Globe that she said Farwell was the father of her unborn child.

Matthew Farwell, former Stoughton police detective

Farwell, 38, is a married father and a former patrolmen’s union president. Based on text messages exchanged between Birchmore and Farwell, and cited by prosecutors, he began having sex with her in 2013. According to federal investigators, they continued to have sexual relations into early 2021, before she was found dead.

Farwell was arrested in Revere in late August on a federal indictment alleging he killed Birchmore because she was a witness in his crimes — his sexual abuse of her as a child and his encounters with her while he was on duty, which could constitute fraud.

The indictment unsealed in August revealed that a friend of Birchmore’s called Stoughton police on Jan. 20, 2021, and said Farwell had been having sex with Birchmore. It alleges a Stoughton police employee told Farwell about the call, but the indictment doesn’t identify the employee. Ten days later, surveillance footage shows Farwell entering Birchmore’s apartment and leaving 28 minutes later. He was the last person to see her alive.

Farwell had been placed on paid administrative leave from Stoughton police a few weeks after Birchmore’s death, until he resigned in April 2022. In 2023, an affidavit prepared by State Police Lieutenant John Fanning revealed Farwell and Birchmore exchanged over 32,000 messages during the two years leading up to her death.

William Farwell, twin brother of Matthew Farwell

Birchmore also met William Farwell at the Explorers program. He later became an instructor after being invited by Devine. He became a police officer in 2017.

William Farwell was on military leave when he was placed on administrative leave in 2022. He resigned a few months later, and in his resignation letter he denied “all allegations of misconduct.”

In September 2022, the Stoughton Police Department released a redacted report of its investigation into the case, and it found that Matthew Farwell, William Farwell, and Devine had “inappropriate” relationships with Birchmore.

The Farwell brothers and Devine are the main targets in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Birchmore’s estate. They have repeatedly denied the accusations. In 2023, the POST Commission moved to decertify the brothers as law enforcement officers and accused William Farwell of sending sexually graphic photos of himself to Birchmore while on duty. The commission also says that he searched Birchmore’s name in a police database twice without any reason to do so.

William Farwell is challenging the effort to decertify him. Matthew Farwell agreed to decertification, but he denied any wrongdoing.

Robert Devine, former instructor of Stoughton Police Explorers

In January, the POST Commission accused Devine of arranging to have sex with Birchmore in 2020. During a Stoughton police internal investigation launched after Birchmore died, Devine said he never messaged her and that they barely ever interacted. Investigators later found that Devine was using a fake name to talk to Birchmore on Facebook. A Superior Court judge wrote about Devine’s relationship with Birchmore in relation to her estate’s wrongful death lawsuit and said Devine was having sexual encounters with her by 2020.

In 2016, the same year Birchmore’s mother and grandmother died, Devine was demoted from deputy chief to patrol officer. He was the subject of an internal harassment investigation surrounding a woman with whom he had an affair. The same year, Stoughton ended its Explorers program.

In April 2022, Devine was placed on administrative leave, and in August that year, he retired from the department.

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, and the medical examiner’s office

After Canton police officers first found Birchmore’s body, they alerted the Norfolk district attorney’s office of an “apparent suicide.” Three months later, the state medical examiner’s office declared her death a suicide. It maintained the suicide ruling after Farwell resigned in 2022, and after Birchmore’s family and friends questioned it. Relatives and friends relayed to police that she was happy about her pregnancy and would not have committed suicide.

In September 2022, a spokesperson for Morrissey said that State Police investigators and the medical examiner’s office “found no evidence of foul play” in Birchmore’s death.

Acting US Attorney Joshua Levy, and the FBI

The public outcry from Birchmore’s relatives and friends led federal investigators and Acting US Attorney Joshua Levy to take notice. The federal investigation pieced together new evidence around the details of her death that the previous Norfolk County investigation did not.

At the Aug. 28 press conference announcing Farwell’s indictment, Levy declared, “When someone comes to our office with credible information that a police officer may have been involved in a murder and underlying legal violations as set forth in the indictment, we’re going to investigate that case every time.”

Levy said that Farwell “essentially groomed” Birchmore. He said the investigation remains ongoing and that federal investigators are sharing their evidence with state prosecutors.

In August, Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy announced charges against Matthew Farwell in the death of Sandra Birchmore. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff

Levy says prosecutors have not decided whether or not to seek capital punishment for Farwell, who pleaded not guilty to killing a witness or victim — a charge that can potentially result in the death penalty.

“He allegedly attempted to cover his tracks to literally try and get away with murder,” Levy said last month. “And he almost did — until today.”

Izzy Bryars can be reached at izzy.bryars@globe.com. Follow her @izzybryars.