3 Cops Had 'Inappropriate' Relationship With Young Woman. Days After One Ended it, The Pregnant Woman Took Her Life.
Sept. 26 2022, Published 11:58 a.m. ET
A police agency is under fire after an internal investigation found officers had an inappropriate relationship with a young woman who later killed herself, Radar has learned.
The reported was released in recent days and blasted the officers for their behavior.
"I am here to talk about today is her life and how she was failed by, manipulated by, and used by people of authority that she admired and trusted right up until her final days," Stoughton police Chief Donna McNamara said at a press conference in recent days.
The investigation lasted 19 months and looked at a case involving a woman who McNamara described as a “vulnerable person” who looked up to those in uniform.
The woman, Sandra Birchmore, was 23 years old and pregnant when she took her own life in February 2021.
When she was 13 years old, Birchmore joined the Stoughton Police Department’s youth explorers program. She met officer Matthew Ferrell through the program. Two years later, they started having an inappropriate relationship, officials said.
"The investigation uncovered many hundreds of digital messages and explicit exchanges between Matthew Farwell and [the woman] over the course of several years," McNamara said.
That relationship went on until an argument ended it shortly before Bichmore killed herself.
Farwell’s twin brother, William Farwell, and Robert Devine and at least one other office also had relationships with the woman, according to police.
Some of the exchanges with William Farwell happened while he was on duty, officials said.
The unnamed officer has moved to another community, but McNamara told CBS Boston that she provided the information to that agency. He has been placed on leave there.
The three men with Stoughton police have resigned their positions. But McNamara recommended the state revoke their certification to serve as police in Massachusetts.
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There have been no criminal charges in the case.
The explorer program has been disbanded after being inactive for several years.
"A person who wears a badge in this community will work to earn back the trust of our citizens. We will be trained and retrained on the meaning and the importance of our oath. Anyone who violates that sacred responsibility will be held accountable," McNamara said, according to CBS Boston.
