Law Offices of Howard Friedman

10/06/2025

We recommend this article from boston.com. We represent four peaceful protesters who were injured by Boston police officers at the May 31, 2020 demonstration after the murder of George Floyd. The judge’s decision states that the case against the officers will go forward. The case against the City will also proceed, focusing on how a jury could find that the acts of the City’s policymakers were responsible for the officers’ excessive force.

“The judge found that if the jury believes that, that would be an unconstitutional policy of the City of Boston," the protesters' lawyer said.

09/16/2024

Massachusetts State Police officers should not be investigating police officers for criminal conduct. The failure of State Police to investigate Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell for the murder of Sandra Birchmore shows how the blue wall or code of silence protects police officers who break the law, even an officer who should have been the prime suspect in a murder. In the Birchmore case, an unbiased investigator would have conducted a thorough investigation of Farwell, a married father of two with another child on the way when Ms. Birchmore, a young woman with whom he had been having a long-term affair, was found dead in her apartment. Video showed Farwell was the last person to see her alive. Review of her cellphone showed she stopped moving before he left the apartment. There was evidence Ms. Birchmore was happy to be having Farwell’s child. Farwell’s attempt to make it appear she committed su***de would have been contradicted by a proper evaluation of the scene and the medical evidence. Yet, the State Police determined Ms. Birchmore’s death did not involve foul play. The failure to properly investigate this death can only be explained by deliberate failure of the State Police and District Attorney. State Police officers should not be allowed to continue investigating cases where the suspect is a police officer.

The case has reignited questions over whether State Police detectives assigned to district attorneys’ offices should investigate local police-involved incidents.

04/29/2024

On Friday, the highest court in Massachusetts issued a decision in our firm’s public records lawsuit, confirming that the privacy exemption of the public records law does not apply to records related to investigations of law enforcement misconduct.

We represent Eric Mack, whose brother Anthony Harden was shot and killed by Fall River police in 2021. Mr. Mack requested records about the investigation of the shooting from the Bristol District Attorney. The DA should have provided these records because the 2020 police accountability bill made it clear that investigations of police misconduct cannot be withheld due to privacy concerns. Yet, the DA refused to release certain records and information, including the names of police officers and other public employees.

This decision from the SJC makes it clear that the DA must release the names of police officers involved in this fatal shooting, and they cannot rely on the privacy exemption of the public records law to conceal information.

Read more about this case from WBUR (link below) and the Boston Globe (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/26/metro/sjc-rules-officers-names-must-be-included-in-records/).

The state's high court found that portions of the records may be withheld, but rejected broader arguments that a law passed to increase police accountability actually made many records about officers confidential.

10/20/2023

Check out this Boston Globe article about our former law student. Danielle was a fantastic public defender, but we’re delighted that she is succeeding in her dream of being a full-time musician. We’re looking forward to hearing her incredible voice tonight at the House of Blues.

The Northeastern law school grad, whose 2022 debut album and recent festival appearances generated plenty of buzz, has closed the case on which career she wants to pursue.

10/06/2023

The Fall River Police Department ignored multiple credible complaints about Officer Pessoa using improper force and making racist and sexist comments. Instead of disciplining Pessoa, the Department gave him the job of training new officers in the field with additional pay. Last May, after a 19-year career rife with allegations of police brutality, Pessoa was convicted and sentenced to prison for assaulting a civilian and filing false reports. The civilian obtained security camera video showing that Pessoa assaulted him. Fellow officers lied to cover up Pessoa’s conduct and ultimately lost their jobs. It took a case with surveillance video for Pessoa to be held accountable criminally. Pessoa showed he understood that recording the police is a powerful tool for accountability, since numerous civilians claimed that Pessoa threatened to break their phones if they tried to record his actions.

Our firm represented two of Pessoa’s many victims. Howard is quoted in the article, discussing Fall River’s unusual policy of destroying internal affairs investigations after a few years and other issues with their disciplinary practices.

As this article shows, the police cannot police themselves. Let's hope the POST commission changes discipline for police officers in Massachusetts.

Michael Pessoa remained a police officer for nearly two decades despite receiving frequent complaints of physical and verbal abuse, exposing the limits of the Fall River Police Department’s attempts to police itself. Editor's note: This story references offensive remarks about race and sexual assa...

09/08/2023

We are saddened by the loss of our friend and colleague Sarah Wunsch, who died on August 17. Sarah was an excellent lawyer. She was motivated by compassion but was strategically aggressive when representing her clients. Our firm worked with Sarah on many civil rights cases, including the landmark case Glik v. Cunniffe, which established people’s right to record police officers and other public officials who are performing their duties in public.

Sarah was a longtime civil rights champion who was always willing to share her experiences, opinions, and advice with other lawyers and the wider community. She often spoke at events on issues in civil rights law. She had her finger on the pulse of social injustices in Massachusetts; when she saw a concerning issue or trend, she would not hesitate to reach out to her network of advocates to ensure that the legal community could respond appropriately. We will miss Sarah’s advice, kindness, and passion.

Read more about Sarah’s impactful legacy in this New York Times article: Sarah Wunsch, Dogged Defender of Civil Liberties, Dies at 75: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/us/sarah-wunsch-dead.html

08/24/2023

Congratulations and thank you to Lawyers for Civil Rights, who negotiated a settlement with the Boston Police Department in which the department has agreed to resolve its backlog of public records requests within six months and improve their system for providing records. The Boston Police Department typically resists providing public records by incorrectly claiming that records are exempt from the public records law and by routine lengthy delays. In the past, our office has had to sue the department to force them to produce information, but no one should have to resort to a lawsuit in order to receive public records. We’re hopeful to see what changes the next six months bring in the Boston Police Department. Access to public records is an important tool for police accountability and is vital to a healthy democracy.

The commitment to responding to months-old requests is part of a larger overhaul of the public records system Boston police agreed to as part of the settlement.

08/17/2023

Howard was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for his achievements in Civil Rights Law. Howard has successfully handled civil rights cases for clients with complaints of police misconduct, police brutality, false arrest, wrongful conviction, illegal strip searches, violations of prisoners’ rights, and more.

Howard also brings cases under the Massachusetts Public Records Law when agencies such as police departments and district attorneys’ offices refuse to provide public records. Public records are a powerful tool for police accountability. For example, public access to policing data helps individuals and communities identify systemic problems in police departments and demand change.

07/13/2023

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed our friend and colleague Myong Joun as the newest federal judge in the US District Court in Massachusetts. Howard first met Myong in 1997, when Myong worked as a paralegal for the Law Offices of Howard Friedman while he also attended law school. After Myong became a lawyer, he worked with Howard handling police misconduct and civil rights cases. Eventually, Myong opened his own criminal defense and civil rights practice. Myong earned the respect of clients, opposing lawyers, witnesses, and judges through his honesty, calm demeanor, and dependable nature.

In 2014, Myong became a judge in Massachusetts District Court. He continued to impress people with his hard work, respect for all people, orderly courtroom, and intelligent legal analyses. Myong’s experience representing private clients in criminal defense and civil rights cases make him an excellent judge. The people of Massachusetts are lucky to now have Judge Joun on the federal bench.

10/19/2022

Yesterday, jurors in the Suffolk Superior Court awarded our client, Fred Weichel, $33 million as compensation for the nearly 36 years he spent in prison as an innocent man. Fred will only receive $1 million because Massachusetts’s erroneous conviction statute has a cap. Still, the jurors’ verdict sends a message that Fred has waited over four decades to hear: We believe Fred Weichel is innocent.

Fred was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Robert Lamonica in Braintree in 1981. Over the course of his 2.5 week trial, Fred and his legal team showed the jury evidence of Fred’s innocence. We presented multiple alibi witnesses placing Fred miles away, in Boston, at the time of the murder. We presented evidence that the lead police investigator had tunnel vision and decided Fred was his suspect without doing a proper investigation. This police investigator then lied to the grand jury, claiming that four witnesses identified Fred as the man they saw running from the murder scene. In fact, only one witness identified Fred, but that witness was an intoxicated teenager who saw a man running fast, in the dark, for about 1-2 seconds, from 175 feet away. At trial, we demonstrated that it would have been impossible for the witness to identify the running man from that distance.

The Attorney General’s office, which represented the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in this lawsuit, tried to convince the jury that Fred was the murderer. They also argued that even if he wasn’t the murderer, he still didn’t deserve compensation because he couldn’t prove that he didn’t help the real murderer or commit some other related felony. As Fred said, “The jury didn’t buy it. I was just framed. It’s that simple.”

To learn more, check out Channel 5’s interview of Fred after his victory: https://www.wcvb.com/article/boston-fred-weichel-wrongful-conviction-lawsuit-jury-verdict-oct-18-2022/41694322.

05/20/2022

With great sadness, we share the news that our client and friend Lawyer Johnson has passed away.

Lawyer’s life embodied an important chapter in the civil rights movement. Lawyer, a black man, was wrongfully convicted of murdering a white man in 1972. Racial bias permeated Lawyer’s trials. Originally sentenced to death, Lawyer served ten years in prison before being freed. He described this experience as a “legal lynching.”

Howard was a first-year law student when he first met Lawyer during Lawyer’s second criminal trial. Eventually Howard’s former law partner, Michael Avery, won Lawyer’s freedom on a motion for a new trial. Then our firm represented Lawyer on his compensation claim under state law for his wrongful conviction.

During the ten years Lawyer spend unjustly incarcerated, he found hope in meditation, advocating for the rights of people in prison, and art. Lawyer was a skilled artist, creating detailed and deeply symbolic works.

After gaining his freedom, Lawyer committed himself to opposing the death penalty and fighting racism. He promoted the Massachusetts erroneous conviction bill that would eventually allow him to gain some compensation. He was an active member of Witness to Innocence and Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty. He shared his story to high schoolers, college students, law students, community forums, politicians, and people at anti-death-penalty events across the country.

We are grateful to Lawyer for inspiring meaningful change in our criminal legal system. We are motivated by Lawyer’s eternal optimism and belief that a better world is possible. Thank you, Lawyer Johnson.

05/19/2022

In 1995, an internal Boston police investigation found that officer Patrick Rose likely molested a child. The department allowed him to keep his job and continue to interact with children. He recently pleaded guilty to molesting half a dozen children over his career as a police officer and police union president.

The Globe reports that Mayor Wu has not yet viewed the full internal affairs investigation of Rose. Howard and other experts agree that there is no reason why Mayor Wu should not be able to view complete, unredacted documents. Wu has not offered an explanation, leaving a question as to whether the barrier stems from state law, the police union, or the police department.

Keeping internal affairs investigations secret is a way to hide police misconduct from public view. Keeping the results of an investigation from Mayor Wu prevents her from being able to do her job. She needs to understand what happened in the past to prevent it from happening again. Patrick Rose pleaded guilty to 21 counts of child r**e and sexual assault over a 27-year period. Secrecy allowed him to continue to abuse children. The City has a strong interest in making certain the system does not continue to protect police officers who have molested children.

Mayor Wu, speaking on a local news show, implied she was prevented from accessing the full, unredacted internal affairs report of Patrick Rose, the former Boston police officer and union president who last month pleaded guilty to molesting half a dozen children over several decades.