Retired detective testifies in Drumgold case

(AP Photo/Josh Reynolds/file)

Shawn Drumgold earlier this month at his federal lawsuit accusing Boston police of violating his civil rights.

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

One of two retired Boston police detectives accused of railroading Shawn Drumgold for the 1988 murder of 12-year Darlene Tiffany Moore today acknowledged he never wrote a report documenting that he put up a crucial prosecution witness at a city hotel free for several months before the trial.

Testifying at Drumgold's federal lawsuit accusing the Boston police of violating his civil rights, Timothy Callahan said he is certain he informed the prosecutor in the case that he had put up Ricky Evans, a purported eyewitness to the notorious slaying, at a Howard Johnson's hotel in Dorchester in 1989. But he said he cannot recall when he did so and conceded there were no reports documenting it.

"The policy was to investigate and report, and I'm sure I told the assistant district attorney that we placed him in a hotel,'' Callahan said in US District Court.

A state judge threw out Drumgold's conviction in 2003, after he had served 15 years in prison, because the defendant and his trial attorney never knew about evidence that could have cleared Drumgold. The evidence included that Evans had receiving free lodging at the hotel and spending money from Callahan before the trial. A Globe investigation had revealed the preferential treatment.

Three weeks ago, Evans testified that he made up his testimony claiming to have seen Drumgold near where Moore was fatally shot in Roxbury after detectives fed him information and food, put him up at the hotel for eight months, and cleared up a handful of outstanding arrest warrants before the trial in the fall of 1989.

Under rapid-fire questioning today by Drumgold's lawyer, Rosemary Scapicchio, Callahan also testified that he had no idea that another detective, Paul McDonough, who is not being sued, drove Evans to Roxbury District Court to clear up the arrest warrants. Callahan supervised McDonough and spoke to him every day.

Earlier in the trial, McDonough testified that he told Callahan about clearing up the warrants the same day he took Evans to court, Scapicchio said.

Callahan is expected to take the stand again Thursday and will be followed by Richard Walsh, the other retired detective being sued.

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