Overview

• U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV ordered two years’ probation, 150 hours of community service, and a $500 fine for David S. Finnerty.
• Finnerty was convicted in May of aiding and abetting the filing of a false arrest report tied to an unprovoked beating of a homeless man at Ashmont station on July 27, 2018.
• Prosecutors said Finnerty watched video of the incident and then helped Officer Dorston Bartlett justify baton strikes by inserting false claims that the victim was assaultive and resisting.
• According to investigators, Finnerty coached Bartlett by cell phone to avoid recorded lines, edited the report on his own computer while citing use-of-force policy, and closed the document without saving to evade a digital trail.
• After an eight-day trial, jurors acquitted Finnerty of a separate false-report count while convicting him on the aiding-and-abetting charge, and DOJ and FBI leaders condemned his conduct as a betrayal of public trust.