Revere mayor fires police sergeant who fled scene of officer's slaying
By Katheleen Conti, Globe Staff
REVERE -- A police sergeant who fled the scene after the fatal shooting of an officer last year, and then allegedly diverted an officer responding to the scene so he could get a ride home, was fired today by Mayor Thomas G. Ambrosino.
Siding with a recommendation for dismissal from Police Chief Terence K. Reardon, Ambrosino terminated Sergeant Evan Franklin, 37, stating that his actions the night Officer Daniel Talbot was slain were a "breach of the most fundamental of police responsibilities."
"I have little doubt, as confirmed by Chief Reardon's testimony, that some police officers in our department would have difficulty working with, and under the leadership of, a superior officer who fled the scene, as Sergeant Franklin chose to do," Ambrosino wrote in his decision.
Ambrosino said it was Franklin's "conduct upon confronting the first responding unit, which justifies dismissal."
Franklin, who has been suspended with pay since the Sept. 29 shooting, will appeal the decision, said his Boston attorney Neil Rossman.
"I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised," Rossman said in a telephone interview. Franklin "is disappointed also. ... He knew it was coming, but he feels he's a victim of this situation also. Obviously not a victim who paid with his life, like Officer Talbot, but still a victim of what occurred that night."
Franklin, along with Officers William Soto, Stacey Bruzzese, and Talbot and Talbot's fiancee Connie Bethell, left a local restaurant, where they had dinner and drinks, on Sept. 29 before 1 a.m. and headed to Revere High School's baseball field to drink beers from a cooler in Soto's truck, Ambrosino's report said.
Half an hour later, the group exchanged words with a 17-year-old gang member, who allegedly left the scene but returned a short time later with other young men, including gang member Robert Iacoviello Jr., 20, who shot Talbot in the head. Four people have been charged in the case.
While Soto returned fire and Bruzzese protected Bethell, the unarmed Franklin fled the scene, Ambrosino said. Franklin's service weapon was inside Soto's truck, unsecured, a felony under state law.
Some distance later, Franklin came upon Officer Robert Impemba, who was responding to the shooting in his cruiser, and asked him for a ride home. Upon learning that Impemba was on his way to the shooting, Franklin got into the back seat and said, "All right then, just bring me to Broadway," according to a statement by Impemba. Franklin did not tell Impemba he'd just been at the scene of the shooting, Ambrosino said.
"To divert Officer Impemba from immediately responding to the crime scene was indefensible," Ambrosino wrote, adding that it was "unconscionable" to fail to mention anything to Impemba about the shooting.
Later that morning, when being questioned by State Police investigators, Franklin "blatantly lied" when he told investigators he ran home, Ambrosino said.
"Franklin's failure to tell the truth, while being interviewed as part of what was essentially a murder investigation, makes him unfit to continue serving as a sworn police officer," Ambrosino wrote. "There is overwhelming evidence here of egregious misconduct by Sergeant Franklin."
Reardon said in an interview that a lack of trust in Franklin was a major part in his decision to recommend that he be fired.
"The facts speak for themselves," Reardon said. "We regret having to terminate anybody, but under the circumstances, that seemed to be our only option."
