Overview
- The Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission voted on Dec. 18 to decertify Robert Devine, with the final decision released this month, permanently barring him from policing in Massachusetts.
- The commission ordered Devine’s decertification reported to the National Decertification Index, a database used by agencies across the country.
- Investigators concluded Devine met Sandra Birchmore through the Stoughton Police Explorers program, leveraged his authority to develop a relationship that later became sexual, used a Facebook alias “Marty Riggs” to communicate with her, and was untruthful to internal investigators.
- Devine denies wrongdoing, argued the evidence was unreliable because Birchmore cannot be cross-examined, and may seek judicial review in Superior Court within 30 days.
- Birchmore, 23, was found dead in 2021; former Stoughton officer Matthew Farwell has pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging he killed her and her unborn child and remains detained in Rhode Island, with DNA testing excluding him as the father.