Charges of police brutality rock Lawrence force
LAWRENCE -- Even the naysayers would have agreed things were looking good for the Lawrence Police Department. The agency last month posted its lowest per-quarter crime numbers in 30 years. There has not been a homicide this year in the city of 71,000.
Police Chief John J. Romero, meanwhile, has been enjoying high praise for his leadership in Lawrence, especially by Latino groups for having increased the number of Latino officers to 23 percent of the 161-member force since taking the helm in 1998 .
But how quickly things have changed.
In recent days, the department has been roiled by allegations of police brutality, after a resident alleged he was beaten and knocked unconscious by a Lawrence police officer. The American Civil Liberties Union has launched an inquiry, and several other residents also have made allegations of excessive force by local police.
There are renewed calls from various community leaders for a civilian review board to check on police conduct. Romero has found himself on the hot seat in his own community, and has suspended at least one officer from the job as the fallout continues.
City officials last week confirmed that Officer Kyle Wilcox , a three-year member of the department, was suspended for 30 days in connection with the alleged beating of resident Moises Fernandez following his arrest on Dec. 22.
Fernandez, 39 , told the Globe he was arrested after he refused to continue translating for Wilcox, who was handling a dispute between Fernandez's former wife and a tenant over a Myrtle Street apartment. Fernandez said he was taken to the Police Station and beaten by Wilcox and knocked unconscious while handcuffed in a back room -- allegations that the officer has denied in court.
That incident and about a half-dozen other cases involving allegations of excessive force have prompted the ACLU to ask the Police Department for its records, all under the glare of intense publicity in local Spanish-language newspapers.
Romero insisted that excessive-force cases are rare in his department, and those that come up, he said, are investigated thoroughly by the department's internal affairs division.
"We make somewhere in the area of 5,000 arrests a year and we handle, just from the station house, 50,000 calls for service," Romero said. "Maybe, we'll get six allegations of excessive force."
In an interview, Romero said most of those who have made accusations against the police at public forums and in the Spanish-language newspapers have refused to cooperate with internal affairs about their complaints. "We take allegations of [excessive force] seriously," he said. "Anytime someone makes an accusation, we want to get to the bottom of it."
Still, some residents say excessive force by police is a problem in Lawrence.
Persio Acevedo , one of the organizers of a recent ACLU forum, said the city's Latino residents are scared of the police and don't think cooperating with internal affairs will yield any results.
"If internal affairs worked, people would go there," Acevedo said. "But people have had bad experiences."
Newspapers like Rumbo , Siglo 21, and El Mundo have been running stories about alleged police abuse, accompanied by photos of beaten victims. The stories often have run without comments from the police, and sometimes without details of arrests. But they have generated a lot of talk on Spanish radio stations, and prompted the ACLU to step in.
The furor began this year soon after Fernandez went public.
He said he was translating for Wilcox when the officer asked how Fernandez's former wife, Altagracia , could afford a mortgage and whether she was involved in selling drugs. Fernandez said he got angry and walked away from Wilcox, telling the officer to "bring a Spanish-speaking officer -- I'm through translating."
According to a police report, Wilcox placed Fernandez under arrest "due to Moises Fernandez's actions in combination [with] damaging the victim's property and his disorderly behavior." The report stated Fernandez resisted arrest and engaged in a struggle with Wilcox. It stated Wilcox used pepper spray to prevent Fernandez's brother, Rubenito , from interfering with the arrest. Both brothers were arrested and taken to the Lawrence Police Station .
What happened next is disputed.
Wilcox's report stated that both men were "booked in the usual manner," then taken to Lawrence General Hospital for treatment of "bumps and bruises."
But Moises Fernandez, who said he's too scared to file a formal complaint against Wilcox, asserted that that's not how events unfolded at the station. His lawyer, Hank Brennan , said Fernandez was placed in a "grey or pink room" and beaten by Wilcox while handcuffed. Fernandez alleged that he was struck by an object on the side of the head and knocked unconscious, and when he came to, he found himself bleeding from head injuries and "scared for [his] life." He said he was able to shake from his pocket his cellphone -- something that normally would have been confiscated during booking -- and called 911 for help.
"I'm in police in the station in Lawrence, Massachusetts. They killing me . . . They hit me a lot. . . . I'm bleeding," a weeping Fernandez was recorded as saying on the 911 tape. The call prompted a State Police dispatcher to send an ambulance to the station.
Wilcox's report does not mention a 911 call.
Last week, Wilcox denied in Lawrence District Court that Fernandez's injuries were inflicted by him. Testifying against a motion by Brennan to suppress some of Fernandez's statements in the police report -- which stated Ferrnandez did "repeatedly apologize to Officer Wilcox for his actions/behaviors" before his arrest, but which Brennan said his client made out of fear -- Wilcox also said he couldn't recall events leading to the injuries.
Without naming the officer, Lawrence Mayor Michael J. Sullivan last week announced he was suspending Wilcox for 30 days. Wilcox, who could not be reached for comment on this story, could appeal his suspension this week.
This is not the first accusation against Wilcox in the use of excessive force as a police officer. In 2000, as a Boston Municipal Police officer, Wilcox fatally shot a 29-year-old man in the neck during a chase in Dorchester. Then-Suffolk District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II declined to bring charges against Wilcox, despite widespread protest.
In Lawrence, Wilcox is the subject of at least two other internal affairs probes into police misconduct, including one involving a $2 million lawsuit that accuses him and two other officers of breaking a man's jaw during an arrest last summer.
Romero confirmed the internal affairs investigations, but said he could not discuss Wilcox's record as a Lawrence police officer because it was a personnel issue. He declined to say whether he knew about Wilcox's past as a Boston Municipal officer.
After Fernandez told his story at an ACLU forum last month, other residents came forward to complain about police conduct.
The allegations prompted the City Council's Public Safety Committee to hold a forum on alleged police abuse and some city leaders, including Councilor Nunzio DiMarca , to call for civilian oversight of the police.
"This is getting out of hand," he said. "Some officers are abusing their power."
Both Romero and Sullivan have rejected the concept of a panel.
"If you have a civilian oversight board, it runs the risk of becoming too political," Romero said.
"The majority of police officers in the city are professional and do a wonderful job," Sullivan said. "Occasionally, you have someone who needs to be disciplined, and we deal with it."
Russell Contreras can be reached at rcontreras@globe.com. 