Matthew Farwell was convicted Wednesday of killing 23-year-old pregnant teacher’s aide Sandra Birchmore, a murder that a federal jury ruled took place because the ex cop wanted to “clean up his mess,” one created when he sexually groomed and abused her when she was a minor member of the Stoughton Police Explorer’s program.
The 41-year-old former detective and police union president is not the only cop who has been charged with abusing a minor member of a Police Explorer’s program. In Orange County, Robert Machuca is awaiting trial on a slew of felonies connected to the inappropriate relationship with a teen girl in the Garden Grove Police Explorer’s Program.
“Law enforcement officers occupy a position of immense trust, and he exploited that trust to take advantage of a child for his own sexual gratification,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer announced when charging Machuca. “That conduct will never be tolerated among the ranks of those sworn to protect and serve, and justice will be pursued to the fullest extent.”
In Massachusetts, incoming Norfolk County District Attorney Djuna Perkins announced plans to convene a grand jury to investigate the Stoughton Police Explorer’s Program, which is where Birchmore met Farwell and other alleged abusers, including Farwell’s twin brother William and Robert Devine, now former cops pushed off the force because of their own duty sexual exploits. “We must not allow what happened in Stoughton to happen in our community ever again,” Perkins said.
An investigative report by The Marshall Project and NBC News uncovered nearly 200 instances where teens reported being sexually assaulted by police officers who were supposed to be mentors in Police Explorer’s Program nationwide.
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