Massachusetts

The Massachusetts State Police unit that investigated Karen Read is getting a new leader, weeks after a new leader took over the full agency.

Police announced Friday evening that Det. Lt. Brian Tully, who has been under internal investigation, has been transition to a different department for the time being and that the department is hiring for his old job

“Detective Lieutenant Tully will continue to be available to assist the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office with any cases in which he was previously involved,” state police said in a statement, which noted that the investigation remained ongoing.

The statement said that new Massachusetts State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble decided the move “is in the best interest of the Department’s public safety mission,” but didn’t elaborate.

Read the full statement from Massachusetts State Police here:

The Massachusetts State Police has posted a vacancy for the position of unit commander of the State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office. Colonel Noble has conducted an initial review and believes this decision is in the best interest of the Department’s public safety mission.

The unit commander oversees approximately 20 state troopers who investigate unattended deaths, narcotics and organized crime, sexual assault and abuse, larceny and related, financially motivated crimes. The unit also includes a digital evidence analysis lab processes digital evidence, such as computers and cellular phones from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. 

The position was previously held by Detective Lieutenant Brian Tully who transitioned to a temporary assignment in the Division of Investigative Services. Detective Lieutenant Tully will continue to be available to assist the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office with any cases in which he was previously involved. Detective Lieutenant Tully remains the subject of an ongoing internal affairs investigation.

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A man who attacked a corrections officer when he was housed as an inmate at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute in Shirley in 2022 pled guilty Friday, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.

The attack left the corrections officer at the facility fighting for his life and set off a push for stronger safety measures at state prison facilities.

Roy Booth, 42, pled guilty to mayhem and armed assault with intent to murder in Middlesex Superior Court. He was sentenced to 13 to 15 years in prison, to be served consecutively with a life sentence he is serving in Virginia for murder.

Prosecutors say Booth used a metal pole that he took from the weight room to beat Corrections Officer Matthew Tidman, attacking him from behind. Booth did not stop until he was physically forced to by other officers.

Booth had been transferred to Massachusetts from Virginia in 2021. He was transferred back to a Virginia state prison after the attack.

NBC10 Boston learned while in prison in Virginia, Booth earned a lengthy disciplinary record comprised of 60 offenses, including a violent assault on another inmate. In January of last year, citing his poor adjustment, the Virginia Department of Corrections recommended he be transferred to an out-of-state prison. He was put into MCI-Shirley, which is medium security.

Tidman survived the attack, though he is now permanently disabled with a traumatic brain injury and other medical concerns. He and his family have been active in pushing for stricter safety regulations at prisons, a call echoed by the union that represents corrections officers in the state.

More recently, the union has called for the Department of Correction to make changes after a stabbing at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley on Sept. 18. Two officers suffered stab wounds and three others were also hurt in the assault, allegedly at the hands of inmates in the facility.

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The death of a worker crushed by part of a Hanson, Massachusetts, building’s foundation in February was “entirely preventable,” according to the federal workplace safety agency, which has cited the man’s employer.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Aleckssandro Tomaz Pereira, a Woburn man with three waterproofing contracting companies, for two willful and six serious violations in the Feb. 7 construction death of a worker on a Dwight Street home.

Pereira exposed his employees to several hazards by not protecting a 5-to-6-foot trench under the home’s foundation, including risks of cave-ins and structural collapse, OSHA said.

“Aleckssandro Tomaz Pereira should never have placed workers in this trench until the excavation and the building’s foundation were guarded against collapse, workers were properly trained, water was removed from the trench and an exit ladder was provided,” OSHA Area Director James Mulligan said in a statement. “This tragedy was entirely preventable.”

OSHA proposed $283,115 in penalties for several violations and two willful violations. The citations were issued in July; Pereira had until Nov. 26 to abate them.

NBC10 Boston is reaching out to Pereira for comment.

Family has previously identified the worker who died as Gerceir DeFaria, a recent immigrant from Brazil. It took hours to remove his body from the scene after the first call that he was trapped in the collapse, Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz said as the investigation began..

“The heart is broken,” said his brother, Elias DeFaria, at the time. “Every day, he called to his family, every day.”

The man was waterproofing the home’s basement when part of the foundation broke off and fell on about half of his body at about 11:30 a.m., according to Cruz.

Workers were using air bags and other tools to shore up the building.

DeFaria’s brother said the man came to the U.S. for work about six months before and that his wife and kids were still in Brazil. They were in shock and couldn’t understand how the incident happened.

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