HORRIFIC

Lawsuit Accuses Massachusetts Cops of Sexually Abusing Teen for a Decade

Sandra Birchmore, who was 15 when the alleged sexual abuse began, killed herself last year.

In September, three Massachusetts cops were accused in an internal affairs report of having an “inappropriate relationship” with a 23-year-old pregnant woman. Sandra Birchmore, who was 15 when the alleged sexual abuse began, killed herself last year. Now Birchmore’s estate has filed a lawsuit against the Stoughton cops, accusing them “of a near decade-long scheme of grooming and repeated sexual assaults [of Birchmore] from a young age.” According to the suit, the officers sexually assaulted Birchmore two years after she joined the department’s Youth Explorers Program at age 13, and one of the officers is believed to be the father of Birchmore’s baby. The complaint alleges Officer Matthew G. Farwell was 27 when he began abusing Birchmore, and that the married father was the last person to see her alive in Feb. 2021. The lawsuit also names Farwell’s twin brother, William, and officer Robert Devine, as well as the town and its police department. An attorney for Matthew Farwell told the Boston Globe, “He played no role in her death and the District Attorney charged him with no crime in connection with her death or otherwise."