Michael Pessoa remained a police officer for nearly two decades despite receiving frequent complaints of physical and verbal abuse, exposing the limits of the Fall River Police Department’s attempts to police itself.

A review by The Public’s Radio of court records and internal affairs documents, some of which were destroyed by the Fall River Police Department and recovered through other sources, revealed that at least twelve other civilians accused Pessoa of excessive force before Lafrance. Records show Pessoa was never disciplined for those incidents until the DA started probing Pessoa’s past, even though patterns of concerning allegations had been clear to Pessoa’s superior officers.

Civilians reported Pessoa for placing them in chokeholds at least three times, and bystanders repeatedly claimed that Pessoa would break their phones if they tried to film arrests. Other civilians complained of serious injuries.

  • Trigger2_2000English
    2·
    1 year ago

    Only one of many examples:

    . . . Even as more complaints and lawsuits against Pessoa began to distinguish him from every other officer in the department, Pessoa was awarded an extra $2,900 per year to serve as a field training officer, a role responsible for teaching younger officers the best practices of police work in Fall River. . . .