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Teen to plead guilty as accessory in shooting of Revere police officer

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 28, 2009 08:40 AM

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A teenager who allegedly set in motion a series of events that ended with the killing of a Revere police officer is expected to plead guilty today in a Dedham courtroom.

Derek Lodie was 17 years old when he walked onto the athletic field behind Revere High School at 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 29, 2007. A verbal confrontation occurred between Lodie and a group of adults who were drinking that included several Revere police officers.

Officer Daniel Talbot, a member of the department's gang unit, taunted Lodie about the Bloods, according to court records filed earlier in the case by Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office. Lodie -- who did not know Talbot -- allegedly used his cellphone to summon Robert Iacoviello Jr., 20, a suspected member of the street gang.

"As Talbot approached Lodie, who was continuing to taunt and in the process draw Talbot towards the parking lot, Iacoviello ambushed him," Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Edmond Zabin wrote in court papers.

Talbot, 30, was shot in the head and later pronounced dead. At the time, Talbot was in the park with his fiancée and three other Revere police officers splitting a six pack of beer, authorities have said.

Iacoviello has pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge and is being held without bail.

At the time of Lodie's arrest, defense attorney J.W. Carney Jr. called the events that led to Talbot’s death "very unusual and very suspicious."

The shooting led to the firing of Revere police Sergeant Evan Franklin after an internal investigation. Franklin ran from the scene and ordered the first arriving police officer to drive him home, not provide assistance to Talbot, according to the investigation.

Relatives of Talbot are expected to address the court when Lodie pleads guilty today, according to a spokesman for the district attorney. Lodie will appeared today in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham because Superior Court Judge Patrick Brady, who has handled the case, is now hearing cases there.