PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Baden, who during his 50-year career has been called in to help reinvestigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and the death of George Floyd, pointed in particular to a fractured right hyoid bone, a small U-shaped bone, in Birchmore’s neck. That kind of injury “occurs rarely, if at all, in suicidal hanging and does occur in half of homicidal strangulations of women,” he wrote, citing a seminal forensic pathology textbook on the issue. That fracture and other injuries suffered by Birchmore “are commonly found in homicidal strangulation — manual and ligature — but not in suicidal hanging.” Then, of course, there is the matter of Birchmore’s pregnancy. Baden wrote that the state medical examiner “apparently did not send fetal tissue for DNA analysis to determine who the father was. Birchmore had told at least three friends that the father was Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell, whom she had known since she enrolled in a Stoughton Police Explorers Program at age 13 — the same time she met his twin brother, officer William Farwell, and the then leader of the program, Robert C. Devine. Matthew Farwell, who is married, denied to State Police investigators that he was the father. Farwell is also believed to be the last person to have seen Birchmore alive, on Feb. 1, 2021, a fact verified by surveillance cameras at her Canton apartment. "
———————————————————————————————
PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "And so it goes. Yet in the world of criminal justice if you don’t ask the right questions, you never get the right answers. When it comes to cops investigating cops, that seems to be a problem in Norfolk County. Matthew Farwell didn’t want a DNA test. Well, no problem apparently. End of story. Allegations that Farwell may have had sex with Birchmore when she was as young as 15 — and, yes, that would be statutory rape — were investigated by State Police Lieutenant John Fanning, according to an affidavit. But, again, no charges were ever brought by Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey. The only avenue of investigation State Police seemed to pursue was whether Farwell was conducting his relationship with Birchmore on police department time."
——————————————————————————
PASSAGE THREE OF THE DAY: "A young woman is dead, three now former cops are accused in a wrongful death lawsuit of “grooming and repeated sexual assaults” dating back to her adolescence, and the best the State Police and the DA’s office can do is — maybe — larceny for conducting an affair on company time. Thus far there have been no criminal charges lodged against any of the men. It’s not lost on anyone that some of the same cast of characters and agencies involved in the Birchmore case also figured in the Read trial. Fanning, the Birchmore investigator, was on the receiving end of those appalling misogynistic group text messages from State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who investigated the Read case. We now know that both cases have attracted the attention of the US Attorney’s office and the FBI — which already produced reports introduced during the Read trial. At least three people have acknowledged to the Globe they were interviewed about Birchmore. So there is yet some hope that one day there will be an accounting for those who exploited a vulnerable young woman and those who did far too little to pursue justice on her behalf. That moment can’t come soon enough."
-----------------------------------------------------------
EDITORIAL: Where is justice for Sandra Birchmore?, published by The Boston Globe Editorial Board, on July 7, 2024.
SUB-HEADING: "State Police and the Norfolk DA once again face questions about a double standard."
GIST: "Sandra Birchmore deserved so much better — certainly from her all-too-brief life and, now we know, from the remarkably incurious people charged with investigating her death.
Birchmore was 23 and pregnant when she died. Beginning when she was a teenager, three now-former Stoughton police officers allegedly had taken sexual advantage of her, and she had told friends one of the officers was the father.
Through the efforts of Birchmore’s family and the work of a prominent forensic pathologist, perhaps there will now at least be answers — more than three years after her death, which at the time was ruled a suicide by hanging, following an autopsy by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
But Dr. Michael Baden, a former chief medical examiner in New York City, disagrees with the medical examiner’s findings. In a letter to lawyers for the Birchmore estate, he wrote, “Ms. Birchmore did not die of suicidal hanging. … The cause of Ms. Birchmore’s death is ‘Strangulation’ and the manner of death is ‘Homicide.’”
And that raises all kinds of questions about the competency of the State Police and the Norfolk County district attorney’s office in their handling of the original investigation, yet another probe in which police officers figure prominently — not unlike the charges brought against Karen Read in the death of her Boston Police officer boyfriend.
Baden, who during his 50-year career has been called in to help reinvestigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and the death of George Floyd, pointed in particular to a fractured right hyoid bone, a small U-shaped bone, in Birchmore’s neck. That kind of injury “occurs rarely, if at all, in suicidal hanging and does occur in half of homicidal strangulations of women,” he wrote, citing a seminal forensic pathology textbook on the issue.
That fracture and other injuries suffered by Birchmore “are commonly found in homicidal strangulation — manual and ligature — but not in suicidal hanging.”
Then, of course, there is the matter of Birchmore’s pregnancy. Baden wrote that the state medical examiner “apparently did not send fetal tissue for DNA analysis to determine who the father was.
Birchmore had told at least three friends that the father was Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell, whom she had known since she enrolled in a Stoughton Police Explorers Program at age 13 — the same time she met his twin brother, officer William Farwell, and the then leader of the program, Robert C. Devine.
Matthew Farwell, who is married, denied to State Police investigators that he was the father.
Farwell is also believed to be the last person to have seen Birchmore alive, on Feb. 1, 2021, a fact verified by surveillance cameras at her Canton apartment. He told investigators he went to the apartment to end the relationship. His wife gave birth to a son the following day.
Birchmore’s body was discovered Feb. 4, 2021, after her employer, Sharon Public Schools, called police and requested a wellness check. Farwell was interviewed by State Police on Feb. 6, 2021, and he acknowledged the visit to Birchmore’s apartment and the sexual relationship, which he insisted ended the previous October, well before Birchmore became pregnant. He also refused a State Police request for a DNA sample.
Baden in his letter confirmed that Birchmore was 10 weeks pregnant.
Baden also noted that it appeared that her clothing and the biological samples from her body collected during her autopsy had never been tested.
A spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office told Globe reporter Laura Crimaldi that decisions about such testing are made by district attorneys or the police working for them.
And so it goes. Yet in the world of criminal justice if you don’t ask the right questions, you never get the right answers. When it comes to cops investigating cops, that seems to be a problem in Norfolk County.
Matthew Farwell didn’t want a DNA test. Well, no problem apparently. End of story.
Allegations that Farwell may have had sex with Birchmore when she was as young as 15 — and, yes, that would be statutory rape — were investigated by State Police Lieutenant John Fanning, according to an affidavit. But, again, no charges were ever brought by Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey.
The only avenue of investigation State Police seemed to pursue was whether Farwell was conducting his relationship with Birchmore on police department time.
Investigators were able to identify “where and how long [Matthew] Farwell spent engaging in a sexual affair when he otherwise claimed he was on duty and purportedly working,” Fanning wrote. But he said investigators could not find “probable cause” against two other Stoughton police officers, believed to be William Farwell and Devine, of similar on-duty conduct.
A young woman is dead, three now former cops are accused in a wrongful death lawsuit of “grooming and repeated sexual assaults” dating back to her adolescence, and the best the State Police and the DA’s office can do is — maybe — larceny for conducting an affair on company time. Thus far there have been no criminal charges lodged against any of the men.
It’s not lost on anyone that some of the same cast of characters and agencies involved in the Birchmore case also figured in the Read trial. Fanning, the Birchmore investigator, was on the receiving end of those appalling misogynistic group text messages from State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who investigated the Read case.
We now know that both cases have attracted the attention of the US Attorney’s office and the FBI — which already produced reports introduced during the Read trial. At least three people have acknowledged to the Globe they were interviewed about Birchmore.
So there is yet some hope that one day there will be an accounting for those who exploited a vulnerable young woman and those who did far too little to pursue justice on her behalf. That moment can’t come soon enough.
@GlobeOpinion.https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/07/opinion/sandra-birchmore-norfolk/?utm_source=TMP-Newsletter&utm_campaign=74b4b1f745-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_07_09_10_41&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5e02cdad9d-74b4b1f745-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
———————————————————————————————
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
