IAPE Evidence Blog

The Boston Globe, boston.com, METRODESK
BYLINE: Mil­ton J. Valen­cia, Globe Staff
Link to Article

Attle­boro, MA

Law enforce­ment offi­cials are inves­ti­gat­ing the sus­pi­cious dis­ap­pear­ance of cocaine and other ille­gal drugs from the Attle­boro Police Department’s evi­dence room fol­low­ing an audit trig­gered by a change of lead­er­ship in the department.

The city’s mayor, Kevin J. Dumas, con­firmed in a state­ment today that an inter­nal audit had dis­cov­ered that drugs were missing.

The results of the audit have trig­gered an inter­nal police inves­ti­ga­tion, with the assis­tance of an inde­pen­dent con­sul­tant. The Bris­tol dis­trict attorney’s office is also assist­ing in the inves­ti­ga­tion, and the state attor­ney general’s office has been notified.

Dumas said the audit was com­mis­sioned as a mat­ter of rou­tine when Chief Kyle Heag­ney took over as act­ing chief more than a year ago, fol­low­ing the con­tro­ver­sial res­ig­na­tion of for­mer Chief Richard Pierce.

“[Chief Heag­ney] and I are tak­ing this inves­ti­ga­tion very seri­ously and this type of mis­con­duct will not be tol­er­ated,” Dumas said in a state­ment. “I have full faith and con­fi­dence in Chief Heag­ney and all those who are par­tic­i­pat­ing in this investigation.”

Heag­ney said he is inves­ti­gat­ing whether the drugs were stolen and whether they were used by any officers.

“This cor­rup­tion is an insult to the eth­i­cal and decent offi­cers who do their job in a just man­ner, and their right­eous­ness is being over­shad­owed,” he said, say­ing the theft demon­strates the need for manda­tory drug test­ing for police officers.

“This type of cor­rup­tion makes the entire depart­ment look bad. I have zero tol­er­ance for police cor­rup­tion,” he said.

Gregg Mil­iote, a spokesman for Bris­tol Dis­trict Attor­ney Samuel Sut­ter, said his office is assist­ing in the inves­ti­ga­tion. He had no com­ment on whether the dis­ap­pear­ance of any drugs would inter­fere with Bris­tol County pros­e­cu­tions, say­ing, “I think we need to let the inves­ti­ga­tion play itself out.”

The dis­ap­pear­ance of the drugs was first reported today by The Sun Chron­i­cle of Attle­boro. Heag­ney said that that the drugs were dis­cov­ered to be miss­ing in August.

The chief hired APD Man­age­ment, a pri­vate police con­sult­ing com­pany run by for­mer Tewks­bury Police Chief Alfred P. Dono­van that spe­cial­izes in inter­nal police inves­ti­ga­tions, to help in the probe.

The dis­cov­ery of miss­ing drugs comes at a dif­fi­cult time for the depart­ment. Heag­ney, promis­ing reform, offi­cially took over in Octo­ber fol­low­ing the res­ig­na­tion last year of for­mer chief Pierce.

The for­mer chief stepped down at the request of Dumas amid alle­ga­tions that he mis­han­dled an inves­ti­ga­tion of his son, Patrol­man Richard Pierce Jr. The younger Pierce allegedly lied about the use of a Taser dur­ing an arrest, and was ulti­mately fired.

The depart­ment is also still cop­ing with the alleged wrong­do­ing of a vet­eran dis­patcher who was report­edly caught in a sting receiv­ing pack­ages of mar­i­juana sent through the mail ear­lier this month. The dis­patcher, Edward A. Gin­gras II of Attle­boro, is fac­ing charges related to the sting, Mil­iote said.

Heag­ney, a third-generation mem­ber of the depart­ment, whose father was a cap­tain, said he would root out wrong­do­ing within the depart­ment, but said it would take the coop­er­a­tion of hon­est police offi­cers as well.

“We only have bad cops when good cops help out,” he said. “We’ve had some police mis­con­duct, some cor­rup­tion issues, and it’s been a tough time. Nev­er­the­less … a par­a­digm shift is hap­pen­ing with this depart­ment.”
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