An MBTA Transit Police sergeant who was convicted of attempting to “cover up” a fellow officer assault on a person has been sentenced by the feds.
David Finnerty, 49, was discovered responsible of aiding and abetting the submitting of a false arrest report in reference to one other Transit Police officer’s beating of a homeless man on the Ashmont T station.
Finnerty was sentenced on Monday in federal court docket to 2 years’ probation, with a particular situation that he full 150 hours of group service, and he was ordered to pay a $500 advantageous. The U.S. Lawyer’s workplace had advisable a sentence of two years in jail.
“By falsifying a police report to cover up an unconstitutional assault, Mr. Finnerty betrayed his badge, the victim he was sworn to protect, and the public’s trust,” Massachusetts U.S. Lawyer Leah Foley stated in an announcement. “As an alternative of defending a susceptible man who had been abused, he tried to defend the officer who assaulted him.
“Our justice system depends on officers who follow the law, not those who violate it,” Foley added. “Mr. Finnerty’s conviction affirms a simple truth: no one is above the law, and those who abuse their power will be held accountable.”
Finnerty was the officer in cost for the in a single day shift on July 27, 2018, and the supervisor of Transit Police Officer Dorston Bartlett.
Early that morning on the Ashmont MBTA station, Bartlett bodily assaulted a homeless man with out authorized justification – hanging the sufferer within the leg 3 times with a metal police baton. When the person reported the assault to police, Bartlett arrested the sufferer.
Through the reserving course of, the sufferer repeatedly instructed Finnerty concerning the assault. Finnerty then watched movies of the incident a number of instances with two different officers.
Finnerty ended up claiming that he didn’t see sufficient video to find out Bartlett used extreme power.
As an alternative of reporting Bartlett for extreme power and releasing the sufferer, Finnerty helped Bartlett falsify an arrest report designed to coverup Bartlett’s unconstitutional use of power, the feds stated.
“As law enforcement officers, we must be held to the highest of ethical standards, and Sgt. Finnerty blatantly ignored those standards when he shirked his sworn duty and tried to cover up an unprovoked beating of a homeless man by one of his fellow officers,” stated Ted Docks, particular agent answerable for FBI Boston. “What he did was a gross betrayal of trust.”
The adjustments Finnerty made to the arrest report elaborated on falsehoods contained within the unique draft — and added falsehoods designed to justify Bartlett’s use of baton strikes on the sufferer.
Finnerty included info that have been clearly false based mostly on the movies, the feds stated. He wrote that the sufferer “jerked” his physique, that he displayed “assaultive” and “resisting” habits, that Bartlett “perceived a threat to (his) immediate safety” when he struck the sufferer with the baton, and that Bartlett was attempting to put the sufferer in custody on the station.
The feds stated Finnerty didn’t ask Bartlett whether or not the adjustments have been true or correct as a result of he knew they have been lies.
