Police officers violated protocol in domestic violence beating death case
Two Boston police officers violated established protocols last November when they failed to check for a restraining order while responding to a domestic violence call in Hyde Park, according to a report by The Boston Globe.
But experts told the Globe the actions of the two officers are an exception to headway the legal system has made in recent years addressing domestic violence.
The two officers, Robert C. Boyle and William R. Hubbard, responded to a call by Stephanie McMahon, who wanted her intoxicated ex-boyfriend Randall Tremblay taken away from her home. McMahon had a restraining order against Tremblay. But according to the Globe, instead of following department procedures and arresting him, the officers took him to a detox center.
A day later, McMahon was beaten to death.
Tremblay has been charged with her murder and Hubbard and Boyle are facing disciplinary action, according to the Globe.
Thomas Nolan, a criminology professor at Merrimac College and former Boston police officer, told the Globe Boyle and Hubbard disregarded established protocol and procedure.
“It’s not at all unusual to walk into a situation involving domestic violence where the people are not cooperative, they’re intoxicated, they’re belligerent,’’ Nolan said. “It’s clearly the responsibility of the police to ensure that no one is injured. And that if somebody has committed a crime, a violation of a restraining order, that person is placed under arrest and removed from the scene.’’
Nolan said the department takes domestic violence calls very seriously and focuses only on the safety of the victim.
Read the full Globe report here.
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