SPRINGFIELD — The state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission has taken initial steps to decertify suspended city officer Gregg A. Bigda, after Superintendent Cheryl C. Clapprood declined to vouch for his “good moral character” and other strikes against him.
The POST Commission is a fledgling agency designed to create standards for officer fitness and has the power to decertify members of law enforcement, effectively barring them from the industry. It has suspended dozens of officers across the state, most of whom have been charged with felonies.
The city suspended Bigda over a series of ugly incidents, capped by a federal indictment on brutality charges involving two Latino youths who Bigda verbally terrorized and threatened to kill after the boys stole an undercover police car in 2016. He was charged in 2018 and placed on unpaid leave, but was acquitted of all charges by a jury on Dec. 13, 2021.
The city then placed the 28-year veteran on paid leave, where he has remained ever since — collecting his $70,000 taxpayer-funded annual salary while being barred from returning to work. He is entitled to back pay under state law.
City officials passed the baton on taking disciplinary action against Bigda, fearful of running afoul of the state Civil Service Commission, which tends to be generous to officers covered by collective bargaining agreements.
The decision drafted by Enrique Zuniga, executive director of the POST Commission, covers familiar ground in terms of Bigda’s missteps on the force.
But it also offers insights into Bigda’s own interpretation of the “Palmer incident,” named for the town where the youths bailed out of the stolen car and clashed with police.
During a hearing before Zuniga on April 20, Bigda said he had been working around-the-clock before he and fellow Springfield detectives sped to the nearby town to confront the young car thieves.
“… in his state of ‘exhaustion,’ he acted improperly. I do not find this excuse persuasive based on the incessant berating of the two minors, and at the very least, do not find it mitigating of the behavior the applicant exhibited,” Zuniga wrote in his decision, dated May 31. The Republican obtained a copy of the decision Wednesday.
Zuniga cited a litany of quotes from surveillance footage captured at the Palmer Police Department that have previously made headlines and set the foundation for the Feds’ failed attempt to convict him of civil rights charges.
“You know I’m going to beat the f— out of you when we get back to Springfield right?” he said to one boy. “When we hit the Springfield line I’m going to bloody your body.”
While interrogating another boy, Bigda threatened to plant a kilo of cocaine in his pocket and “put him away for 15 years.”
“I’ll charge you with killing Kennedy and make it stick. I’m not hampered by the truth because I don’t give a f—,” Bigda is shown bellowing on camera.
Zuniga writes in his decision that Bigda claimed he “was trying to be funny” with the Kennedy remark.
“The fact that the applicant characterized his Kennedy comment as a joke when meeting with the Commission was troubling for additional reasons. It undermined his assurances that he recognized the impropriety of his behavior,” the director added.
Donald C. Keavany Jr., an attorney for Bigda, said he has already filed an appeal on his client’s behalf. He expects Bigda will have an additional hearing before the full commission or a hearing commissioner.
“Mr. Bigda and I were incredibly disappointed with the Executive Director’s May 31 determination,” Keavany said, when asked for comment. “We look forward to presenting evidence in that proceeding to establish Mr. Bigda’s entitlement to recertification as a law enforcement officer in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
Bigda already served a 60-day unpaid suspension when the videos came to light, taxing the allowable discipline the city could mete out.
Zuniga’s decision mentions numerous citizens’ complaints against Bigda involving excessive force, a domestic incident during which Bigda was portrayed as a drunken antagonist and a series of civil settlements paid out by the city.
Bigda was cleared through internal investigations of virtually all of the citizens’ complaints.
“I affirm the denial of recertification on the additional ground that the Commission cannot certify the applicant … because his certification would have been revoked on the grounds of being unfit for duty as an officer and dangerous to the public,” Zuniga wrote.
John Payne, a city solicitor and retired Springfield District Court judge, said municipal officials initially thought Zuniga’s decision would effectively put an end to Bigda’s employment and the cloud it has cast over the department.
“If he is ultimately decertified and the city’s Board of Police Commissioners accepts it, he can no longer work in the department in any capacity — even as a civilian. Or, in any law enforcement agency, for that matter,” Payne said.
Under state law, Bigda also has the right to appeal the POST Commission’s ultimate decision to a Superior Court judge.