A judge is fining the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office for withholding the names of Fall River police officers involved in the shooting and subsequent death investigation of Anthony Harden, a 26-year-old Black man killed by police as they attempted to arrest him on domestic violence charges nearly two years ago.
“This was an investigation into police misconduct and the identities of the officers involved should not have been shielded and certainly did not fall into any privacy exemption,” Suffolk Superior Court Justice James Budreau wrote in an order that requires the DA’s office to pay $1,000 in punitive damages for withholding the names.
The order, which offers some clarification on standards for transparency in fatal police shooting investigations in Massachusetts, also requires the DA’s office to pay $44,000 in legal expenses that Harden’s family incurred while suing for records that the office is withholding from public release.
Budreau has already ordered the DA’s office to hand over many of those records, which include video interviews with police officers and paramedics who responded to the scene of the shooting. But in March, the DA’s office appealed Budreau’s decision, delaying their release by at least several months.
The punitive damages and Budreau’s order to release more records could be overturned by Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court, where the public records case is now pending.
Budreau said the fine is the lowest amount he could levy under the law, a gesture he said is meant to recognize “that the Bristol DA’s office did provide substantial relevant documents within a reasonable period of time of the request and completion of the investigation.”
The shooting at the center of the public records case occurred on November 22, 2021 as a pair of Fall River police officers — later identified by Harden’s family as Chelsea Campellone and Michael Sullivan — attempted to arrest Harden in the bedroom of his apartment. Harden’s girlfriend had reported him for physical abuse earlier that day. Harden was already under house arrest at the time for another domestic violence case involving a former partner.
An investigation by the Bristol County District Attorney’s office concluded that Harden attacked one of the police officers with a steak knife shortly after their arrival, requiring the other officer to use lethal force.
Harden’s family questioned the district attorney’s narrative of the shooting from the outset.
One of his brothers, Eric Mack, sent notice earlier this year announcing his intention to sue the Fall River Police Department over Harden’s death, seeking punitive damages of $50 million for the “unjustified, unlawful and unnecessary killing.”
The notice raised numerous allegations of misconduct and called attention to the “extremely suspicious” location of the steak knife Harden allegedly used to attack the officers. The knife was marked as evidence behind a television set on the opposite side of the room from Harden’s body.
An initial set of records released by the DA’s office paints an unclear picture of how and when the knife was moved.
A state trooper assigned to the DA’s office, Christopher Johnson, filed an initial report saying emergency responders found the knife when they turned Harden’s body over to treat his gunshot wounds. However, two paramedics who transported Harden to the hospital did not recall seeing the knife anywhere, according to redacted reports released by the DA’s office. An unnamed Fall River police officer who arrived after the shooting said he found the knife under a pile of picture frames blocking the doorway to Harden’s bedroom. After leaving the scene, the same unnamed officer called back to report that he moved the knife and placed it on a desk, according to the redacted reports released by the DA’s office.
Among the records that the Bristol County district attorney still refuses to release are the video interview of the officer that moved the knife and unredacted reports that identify the officer by name.
Harden’s family members have also filed a third lawsuit that calls on the Supreme Judicial Court to remove Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn from office.
Ben Berke is the South Coast Bureau Reporter for The Public’s Radio. He can be reached at bberke@thepublicsradio.org. Follow him on Twitter @BenBerke6.
