More questions raised by an internal investigations report obtained by MassLive

By Dan Glaun | MassLive.com

A Springfield internal investigations report, obtained by MassLive following a two-month public records dispute with the city, sheds new light on an alleged 2015 police altercation that left Springfield resident Paul Cumby with a broken leg and loosened teeth, his companions with minor injuries and 12 Springfield officers facing disciplinary charges.

The report, an investigation into the alleged fight outside a Springfield bar between off-duty officers, Cumby and three other men, reveals missing video footage, contradictory testimony by officers and an inability by responding patrolmen to fully explain why they failed to search the bar for suspects following the altercation.

Some details of the fight, which took place after Cumby and his group argued with four off-duty officers in Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant in the early morning hours of April 8, 2015, were made public in February, after Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni released a report on his decision not to bring criminal charges in the case.

Gulluni concluded that Cumby, his cousins Jozelle and Jackie Ligon and their friend Michael Cintron were victims of an assault, but that no charges could be filed due to a lack of clear identifications.

But the full Internal Investigations Unit report includes as-yet undisclosed testimony about the presence of an off-duty officer at the bar an hour after closing, disruptive and uncooperative behavior by one of the victims and an officer's misleading statements to investigators about why he searched for criminal histories of the assault victims.

Herman Paul Cumby, one of the four men who say a group of off-duty Springfield police officers attacked them on April 8, 2015.

The fight

The case stretches back to the night of April 7, 2015, when Paul Cumby, his cousins Jozelle and Jackie Ligon and Michael Cintron were drinking at Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant.

Jozelle became involved in a verbal dispute with another group of patrons over whether he had whistled at a woman in their party. Cumby and his group told investigators a bar employee identified the other group as off-duty Springfield police officers.

Uniformed officers responded to a report of the initial nonviolent argument around 1:15 a.m. on April 8 and identified four off-duty officers as being present: Daniel Billingsley, Christian Cicero, Anthony Cicero and Melissa Rodriguez. Cumby and his group were asked to leave and did so peacefully, if not contentedly, according to officers' accounts to investigators.

The group stayed near the bar before walking toward the parking lot of Rocky's Hardware Store, a block away. The exact circumstances of when they left and why they remained in the area are in dispute. The owner of Nathan Bill's told investigators he called a cab for the men, who waved it off; the cab driver said he drove away after the men told him they could not pay for the ride. Cumby said in an interview he was waiting until the bar closed to pick up his truck from the parking lot, when he thought it would be safe to return.

The barroom at Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant in Springfield.

About 50 minutes after the initial argument, after last call, Cumby and his group were jumped in a parking lot in a nearby shopping plaza, the DA's report said.

Cumby suffered serious injuries including a fractured ankle and four damaged front teeth. Jackie Ligon was hit and kicked in the torso and head while on the ground, and Jozelle Ligon and Cintron had cuts and bruises, according to the DA's report.

Responding officers told investigators that one of the men, later identified as Cumby, was unconscious on the ground when they arrived at the scene. One of his group attempted to help him up; Cumby vomited and was unsteady after regaining consciousness. Officers said that the victims would not give a full report at the scene, and that Jozelle Ligon was handcuffed but not arrested after being aggressive and belligerent to responding police.

Cumby and his group initially identified the assailants as between eight and 15 white men between the ages of 25 and 45. Cumby filed a complaint with the Springfield Police Department on May 7, and in the following months all four victims were interviewed multiple times by internal affairs and Major Crimes Unit investigators.

Two of the off-duty officers called out sick the two days following the fight, according to the IIU report; Billingsley with "severe migraines," and Christian Cicero with a broken toe.

While responding officers gave statements to internal affairs investigators, the off-duty officers allegedly involved asserted their 5th Amendment rights not to testify. That refusal could not be used against them criminally but could be used as evidence in the coming disciplinary hearing, Gulluni said in February. The city announced last month it had appointed a retired Superior Court judge to help the civilian Community Police Hearing Board evaluate the case.



Missing video

While the narrative of that night has already been publicly disclosed, both through media interviews with the victims and the DA's report, the IIU investigation includes troubling details that have not yet seen the light of day.

William Andrew, the sergeant who authored the internal affairs report, canvassed the area near the scene of the fight in an attempt to secure video evidence. Nathan Bill's did not have cameras trained on its parking lot, nor did Murphy's Pop Stop, Rocky's Ace Hardware or seven other nearby establishments, he wrote.

But the Bank of America branch next to the bar did, and Andrew reported a synopsis of its footage the night of the assault. The footage showed activity near the entrance of Nathan Bill's but not the fight itself, which took place nearby outside Murphy's Pop Stop.

The video showed cruisers arriving at the time of the verbal altercation, starting at 1:15 a.m.; it showed off-duty officer Christian Cicero conversing with the on-duty officers who responded to the dispute; it shows the uniformed officers leave at 1:25 a.m., and a taxi pull through the parking lot at 1:48 a.m.

A section of the IIU report describing missing footage from a Bank of America security camera.

At 2:09 a.m., five minutes after the fight was called in to police, a cruiser pulls into the bar parking lot and quickly exits. Another cruiser and an ambulance arrive before leaving. Between 2:21 and 2:30 a.m., four white men in street clothes are seen entering the parking lot, speaking with each other and walking in and out of frame; some of them enter a black pickup truck.

At 2:33 a.m., cruisers begin entering the Nathan Bill's lot.

And then there is a gap.

"A further review of the video showed that the video jumps from around 2:39:16 a.m. to 2:50:36," Andrew wrote in the report. The video ends shortly after, and there is no further explanation of the missing footage in the report.

The approach toward Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant past Murphy's Pop Stop, where the fight took place.

Contradictory testimony

Off-duty officers Daniel Billingsley, Anthony Cicero, Christian Cicero, Igor Basovskiy and Melissa Rodriguez all asserted their Fifth Amendment right not to speak to investigators - a fact noted in the DA's February report on the incident.

But the IIU report reveals that another off-duty officer, Jose Diaz, was also seen at the bar - and gave testimony that contradicted a uniformed officer's account before asserting his right not to speak further.

Diaz told Andrew that he arrived at Nathan Bill's around 1:50 a.m. to help the owner, an acquaintance of his, clean up around the bar. He left around 2 a.m., he said, and did not recall whether he saw any officers at the bar while he was there.

Diaz, who like the other officers met with investigators while accompanied by police union president Joseph Gentile, gave that initial timeline without trouble. But when Andrew began to press him for details, he appeared to lose track of the conversation, according to the report.

"I asked Officer Diaz if he was present at the assault. Officer Diaz experienced difficulty understanding the question," Andrew wrote. "Officer Diaz states he didn't know what was going on."

Andrew asked a third time with no coherent response, he wrote in the report. After the fourth repetition of the question, Diaz said he was not there during the fight.

But Diaz' testimony had another problem: a responding officer had seen him at the bar well after the fight and after Diaz said he had departed.

A section of the IIU report showing contradictory statements on when Officer Jose Diaz left Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant.

"When we followed the last male to the bar I did notice Officer J. Diaz standing outside with [redacted] and one of the owners of the bar," Officer Jeremy Rivas wrote in his statement.

Andrew questioned Diaz about the discrepancy and asked where he was before he arrived at Nathan Bill's, at which point Diaz ended the interview.

"Officer Diaz stated that he should consult with an attorney," Andrew wrote. "I asked Officer Diaz if he wanted to assert his Fifth Amendment Rights. Officer Diaz stated that he did want to assert his Fifth Amendment Rights."

Background checks on crime victims

Reports of the altercation quickly began circulating within the police department. And several officers ran criminal history checks of Cumby and his companions, the investigation found - including one whose lack of forthrightness with investigators led to an internal investigation into his conduct.

Two members of the C3 Forest Park anti-gang unit, of which Billingsley is a member, ran checks on people involved in the fight, though those names are redacted in the report. Sgt. Reginald Miller, the unit's supervisor, said he was made aware he conducted the check during his interview with investigators and could not recall its purpose. Officer Chad Joseph checked four names, and said they were part of his work as an intelligence officer for his unit.

Professor Peter K. Manning, the Elmer V. H. and Eileen M. Brooks chairman of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, said in an interview there is nothing unusual in officers running criminal history checks, and that police have broad discretion to do so.

"In itself, it's a search for information that's probably reasonable given that they were involved in an assault," Manning said. "Officers often just run names or license plates on suspicion, and that's within their legal rights."

But he added that the IIU's focus on the issue suggested the searches raised eyebrows among internal affairs investigators.

"That's an indication that there's something they're concerned about," Manning said.

Neither Miller nor Joseph are facing disciplinary charges. But Officer John Wajdula ran into trouble when he authored incomplete reports on his reasons for checking the names.

On Aug. 13, 2015, Wajdula told Andrew that he learned of one of the men's names from his girlfriend, an employee at Nathan Bill's, and that she learned the victim's name by looking at a bar tab from that night, the IIU report says.

But he omitted that information from his first two written reports to investigators and was vague about his reasons for doing the check, Andrew wrote. Andrew asked him for a more detailed explanation.

"I try to keep myself updated on people who cause trouble within the city for knowledge and officer safety," Wajdula wrote.

Andrew asked Wajdula why he looked up the names when they were listed in the police report as victims of a crime.

"Officer Wajdula stated that he didn't remember how the report read, but [his girlfriend] told him that there was a fight inside of the bar," Andrew wrote.

Wajdula would eventually be subjected to a total of four interviews, each time offering additional information and reasons for looking up the names. On Sept. 9, 2015, Police Commissioner John Barbieri ordered a separate internal investigation into "the incomplete and inaccurate reports" submitted by Wajdula, the IIU report said.

Barbieri and City Solicitor Ed Pikula did not respond to questions about the status of that investigation, and other questions about the IIU report, prior to publication.

No search at Nathan Bill's

One question that troubled Cumby, he has said in interviews, is why police did not search the bar after the fight.

He told MassLive he informed responding officers that he saw some of the men who attacked him in Nathan Bill's when he was escorted back by police to pick up his truck following the altercation. But while uniformed officers reported searching up and down Island Pond Road for suspects, they never re-entered the bar, according to statements to internal investigators.

The DA's February report on the case was focused on the potential for criminal assault charges, and so did not address the conduct of responding officers, Gulluni said in February.

But Andrew did investigate that response in his inquiry and found few answers, according to the IIU report.

Officers Nathaniel Perez and James D'Amour had both responded to the earlier argument at Nathan Bill's, and Perez had identified Billingsley, Rodriguez and Cicero at the scene at 1:15 a.m. They later responded to the 2:04 a.m. report of a fight, and after arriving searched Island Pond Road in the their squad car but were unable to locate any suspects.

Andrew asked why, given that the officers both knew the injured men had been involved in the earlier verbal dispute, they did not search Nathan Bill's for the assailants.

"Officer Perez stated that he responded back to Murphy's to assist the other officers with the four males. I pointed out that there were four officers and an ambulance on the scene to assist the four males," Andrew wrote in his report. "Officer Perez could not give any other reason as to why he didn't search Nathan Bill's."

D'Amour did not offer an answer, the report said.

"Officer D'Amour could not articulate why, knowing that the four males were involved in a disturbance at Nathan Bill's didn't he search Nathan Bill's for the assailants," Andrew wrote.

Sgt. William Andrew's questioned Officer James D'Amour about why he did not search Nathan Bill's Bar and Restaurant after the fight.

Officers Shavonne Lewis and Darren Nguyen also responded to both the initial argument and the fight. Lewis and Nguyen escorted Cumby back to his truck in the Nathan Bill's parking lot after providing first aid, but did not report searching the bar. Andrew did not ask them why they did not do so, according to the report.

And Officer Jeremy Rivas, who noticed Diaz standing off-duty outside the bar with one of the owners after escorting Cumby there after the fight, did not report searching the bar or speaking to Diaz at that time. Andrew did not report asking him about that moment.

For months, the city of Springfield had claimed that the internal investigation report was exempt from disclosure due to upcoming disciplinary hearings against the officers involved. MassLive filed multiple appeals with the Public Records Division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Office.

The city released the report Tuesday after the Hampden County District Attorney's Office indicated it would provide MassLive with its own copy of the investigation, following a separate legal request.