Swampscott Police Protest Arrest Aftermath Gets Critical Review

SWAMPSCOTT, MA —Swampscott police will soon be implementing body-worn cameras, potentially in-car cameras and audio recordings of the booking room as part of recommendations from an independent investigation into a controversial Dec. 12 protest arrest.

Chief Ron Madigan said the department had the funding and was working with officers in the department to adopt the new policy, along with other recommendations regarding additional training.

"We are in the process of going through the report," Madigan said at Wednesday night's special Select Board meeting to discuss the findings. "The vast majority of the department received it shortly before it was released (on Tuesday) to the public. We intend to go through it with a critical eye line by line."

In the report, Municipal Resources Inc., made up of former police chiefs and officers, said that while the arrest of a Black Lives Matter protester for assault and battery on an 80-year-old woman, identified as a supporter of former President Donald Trump, after a witness reported seeing strike her with a closed fist was justified based on probable cause, the ensuing investigation was done "in a disjointed and cursory manner."

"In this case on the whole I would have to say, 'No,'" Municipal Resources Inc. COO Alan Gould, a former Rye (N.H.) police chief, told the Board Wednesday night when asked if the overall handling of the case was "good police work."

Gould added that while the arrest was made on the best information known at the time, "the real work begins after the arrest and in this case the real work began a little too late."

The MRI report also strongly encouraged Swampscott police to follow its own special events planning policy with a clear chain of command during potentially volatile events, a post-event review and an after-action result report.

"In this case, a post-event review probably would have identified most of the stuff we identified and they would have been known within days of the event (instead of months later)," Gould said.

Swampscott police made the arrest on Dec. 12 after the 80-year-old woman threw water at the Black man identified as a Black Lives Matter protester. A witness and department viewer of a livestream of the dueling and contentious protests described the Black Lives Matter protester as retaliating with a close fist toward the woman.

He was arrested at the scene and charged with assault and battery against an elderly or disabled person.

Video evidence later appeared to show the man did not strike the woman with a closed fist and may have used an open hand to deflect the water bottle, according to the report.

Madigan and town officials requested an independent investigation amid the conflicting reports of the incident and accusations the officers violated the civil rights of the man arrested.

"We accept the findings and we are prepared to address these findings as part of a comprehensive effort to support our rigorous standards and policies that reflect our commitment to excellence," Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said. "It is clear that we could have and should have done more as a community as part of our investigative responsibilities.

"It's simply not good enough to say meeting probable cause vindicates anyone or supports a standard that somehow we could not have handled the events of Dec. 12 better."

The report also determined that at no time did police show bias based on race, age, gender or apparent political affiliation. However, Fitzgerald said racial bias must be considered in all aspects of police work.

"Race is an issue we have to continue to discuss as a police department," he said. "We have to think intently about how race plays into everything we do."

Select Board Chair Peter Spellios said that while he could accept the arrest itself may have met the standard of "probable cause," he was deeply troubled with how that arrest based on initial information had a ripple effect into the court process when not corrected as subsequent evidence became available.

Spellios and Select Board Vice Chair Polly Titcomb wrote a letter to the Essex County District Attorney's Office in January requesting it drop the charges — which are still pending — against the man charged in the incident.

"Probable cause was treated as truth," Spellios said Wednesday night. "Something did happen. And he should be accountable for what did happen. But what was said happened didn't happen and this man's liberties are hanging in the balance because of this."

The report was also critical of an officer for using profanity when escorting the man in custody from the scene — telling him to "shut the (expletive) up." The officer told MRI he was attempted to de-escalate the situation.

"Failures to meet a standard of professionalism frankly reflects poorly on the town and frankly we will recommit ourselves to do better," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald added that while first responders have acted heroically during the year of the coronavirus health crisis, "in spite of all these heroic efforts we must be accountable as public servants and as public safety officials."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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