Suspended cop accused of letting police dog ‘viciously’ attack man

State regulators suspended the policing licenses of 4 cops from Boston, Brockton, and Springfield, together with one accused of letting a police canine “viciously” assault a person hiding in a closet.

The Massachusetts Peace Officer Requirements and Coaching Fee is required by regulation to droop the police certifications of regulation enforcement personnel charged, indicted, or arrested in connection to a felony and revoke the license of officers who’re convicted of felonies.

The 4 new suspensions introduced earlier this week carry the entire variety of officers quickly barred from serving to 31, in response to an up to date listing supplied to the Herald on Tuesday.

The additions come on the similar time the POST Fee revealed that it had decertified a Woburn cop accused of serving to plan a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. It’s the first time regulators have taken the extraordinary measure.

Officers newly added to the suspension listing embody Jonathan Correia of the Brockton Police Division, Mila DePina-Cooley of the Boston Police Division, Jeffrey Alicea of the Springfield Police Division, and Monicka Stinson of the Boston Police Division.

Correia’s case stretches again to June 2022, when Brockton resident Jeff Camacho filed a civil rights lawsuit in opposition to Correia, Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez, Brockton Officer Shannon Morency, and the Metropolis of Brockton.

In courtroom filings, Camacho says he was inside his Brockton condominium together with his girlfriend and two kids in April 2021 when police had been known as to the residence. Morency and Correia confirmed as much as the condominium, with Correia bringing his police canine, Enzo, courtroom paperwork stated.

Morency and different officers spoke to Camacho’s girlfriend outdoors the condominium and realized that Camacho was on the third flooring. The girlfriend advised police Camacho was unarmed, there have been no weapons within the condominium, and nobody was damage, in response to courtroom paperwork.

Law enforcement officials entered the condominium, together with Correia together with his police canine Enzo. Camacho, who in courtroom paperwork maintained he “had engaged in no prison conduct, was fully stunned by the police presence.”

Camacho hid in a storage closet contained in the condominium whereas 10 Brockton cops converged on the closet door, courtroom paperwork stated. The officers, together with Morency and Correia, opened the closet door and “bodily eliminated the plaintiff Camacho from the closet.”

“As officers had been putting handcuffs on the plaintiff Camacho, Officer Correia launched Enzo to assault him,” courtroom paperwork stated. “Officer Correia’s police canine Enzo viciously bit onto the plaintiff Camacho’s proper arm.”

Camacho stated the canine continued to chew him “properly after” he was cuffed, which brought about him “to expertise excruciating ache,” in response to courtroom paperwork.

“Officers, together with Officers Morency and Correia, thought of Camacho’s manifestations of ache as ‘resistance,’” courtroom paperwork stated, including the canine chew wounds later turned contaminated throughout a hospital keep.

Attorneys for Camacho and Correia didn’t reply to requests for remark.

A Brockton Police Division spokesperson acknowledged a Herald inquiry on Tuesday however didn’t present a remark.

In paperwork responding to the lawsuit, Correia denied that Camacho’s girlfriend advised police he was unarmed together with most of Camacho’s narrative.

“The defendant [Correia] admits that the police canine bit the plaintiff [Camacho] however denies the characterization of the chew as ‘viciously’,” Correia’s attorneys wrote.

Data present the case is enjoying out in federal courtroom.

Springfield Officer Alicea is accused of assaulting a member of the family on April 15 whereas the pair had been driving in a car and he was in his police uniform, in response to a police report.

The police report stated the member of the family accused Alicea of putting them in handcuffs and later throwing them to the bottom.

Legal professional Daniel Kelly, who’s representing Alicea, didn’t reply to a request for remark. Court docket information accessed Tuesday present that Kelly filed a discover of look final week.

And in Boston, a jury convicted Officer DePina-Cooley final week on three counts of receiving stolen property, in response to the Suffolk County District Legal professional’s Workplace.

Choose Michael Ricciuti on Tuesday handed down a sentence of six months in Suffolk Home of Correction with 60 days to serve with the steadiness suspended for one 12 months, plus 100 hours of neighborhood service.

A spokesperson for the Boston Police Division confirmed DePina-Cooley stays on depart with out pay, although “additional motion is anticipated.”

“It’s unlucky that an officer selected to violate the general public belief on this means and we’ll take acceptable motion,” Boston Police Division Commissioner Michael Cox stated in an announcement to the Herald.

Stinson, a Boston police officer, was suspended with out pay in 2017 after she was accused of mendacity about her contact with a person wished for homicide, the Herald beforehand reported.

Stinson was a 10-year veteran of the division on the time and was charged with witness interference and obstruction of justice, in response to a police assertion from 2017.

A spokesperson for the Suffolk County District Legal professional’s Workplace stated Stinson’s case is scheduled for trial on October 16 and is represented by Legal professional Lawrence Kelly.