Videos at the center of a controversy that has roiled the Springfield Police Department show two veteran detectives playing out a stereotypical "good cop, bad cop" scenario with two of three juvenile suspects who allegedly stole an undercover police vehicle in February.



Recently obtained by The Republican and published today on MassLive -- with video and audio redactions to protect the juveniles' identities -- the footage shows suspended narcotics detective Gregg Bigda and his partner, Luke Cournoyer, veering between cajoling, prodding, coercing and outright threatening two boys with death, beatings and fictitious criminal charges, including the John F. Kennedy assassination.



While the videos have been quoted by defense lawyers in court hearings, the footage now offers the public its first look at what actually transpired between the detectives and the youths in the early morning hours of Feb. 27 in the lock-up at the Palmer Police Department.

The impromptu interrogations unfolded hours after a group of teens allegedly stole an undercover narcotics SUV left idling outside a Worthington Street pizza shop while a detective was picking up a take-out order after 10 p.m. on Feb. 26, according to police records. The vehicle was recovered after a chase reaching speeds of 70 to 80 mph ensued when a Wilbraham officer spotted the vehicle in that town.



The pursuit ended in Palmer when police there employed "stop sticks" to halt the speeding car. The boys were taken into custody after a foot chase involving a state police K-9 officer who stopped one youth and sent him to the hospital with dog bites and other injuries, according to police accounts. Bigda and five other Springfield detectives arrived at the scene after a police captain heard the pursuit underway on the scanner. The captain told the detectives they could join in the arrest, but they would not be paid for it.



While many may argue police are not required to treat suspects like delicate flowers, Bigda and Cournoyer appear to have broken several fundamental rules of police work, according to law enforcement and legal experts interviewed by The Republican.

Namely, the experts say the detectives did not appear to read the boys their Miranda rights and appear to have violated the boys' constitutional rights with threats and intimidation. And, none of the boys had a parent or guardian present while they were being questioned in custody.



Such missteps could result in the statements the detectives squeezed out of the boys being ruled inadmissible in court, according to the experts. In addition, the credibility of the officers involved has been cast in doubt far beyond this case.

In recent weeks, a number of accused drug dealers have walked out of jail or received more generous plea deals in Superior and District court cases in the wake of the videos having been released to defense attorneys by the Hampden district attorney's office this summer.

Springfield detective Gregg A. Bigda is shown in a document included in filings for a pending case in U.S. District Court in Springfield. The photo appeared in an Internal Affairs Unit report on a civilian complaint against the Springfield Police Department. Both the lawsuit and complaint are unrelated to the Palmer incident.

Bigda -- who has been the subject of over two dozen civilian complaints, and who was disciplined earlier this year for threatening a former girlfriend -- was suspended for 60 days by Police Commissioner John R. Barbieri. Cournoyer has not been disciplined.



The so-called "Bigda videos" have been shrouded in secrecy since their existence came to light. First, the district attorney's office refused to release the footage to defense lawyers without a signature on an unusual confidentiality agreement -- which, some attorneys said, felt like a hold-up. Then, a prosecutor argued in September that widespread release of the footage would constitute a "shooting gallery" of embarrassment for the Police Department, and particularly Bigda.



In Hampden Superior Court, Judge Tina S. Page chastised the district attorney's office for "borderline prosecutorial misconduct" but agreed to seal the videos solely to protect the privacy of the juvenile suspects. Page aimed sharp rebukes at assistant district attorney Mary Sandstrom during a hearing on Sept. 15, when the judge ultimately issued the protective order.



"Procedurally this was not handled properly," Page said, adding: "Not handled properly on a lot of levels."



The judge continued, "For you to tell defense counsel, I'm going to give it to you, it's exculpatory ... but you need to sign this first, is borderline prosecutorial misconduct."

The city and other entities denied public records requests filed by The Republican to obtain the footage, citing ongoing investigations. The denials came after the U.S. attorney's and state attorney general's offices began investigating the matter in the wake of the newspaper's reporting.



Access to the footage was essentially shut down, until The Republican gained access to the videos this week.



To set the stage, footage from the Palmer Police Department's cameras shows the boys being ushered into the station just after 4 a.m. They are "courtesy booked" and then questioned by Bigda and Cournoyer in separate holding cells before being taken back to the Springfield Police Department headquarters over two hours later.



Bigda's questioning of the boys focuses on rolled coins that were recovered in the stolen police SUV, which the detective argues must have been stolen during a break-in to a business.

Cournoyer stands by, often silent in his role as the straight man. At times, he methodically questions the boys to establish facts about names, places and the chronology of the evening's events.

At multiple junctures, Bigda threatens to beat the boys -- telling one he'll kill him in the parking lot -- and promises to hang any criminal charge he likes on one of the suspects.



"Motherf---er, I'll charge you with killing Kennedy and f---ing make it stick," Bigda barks at one of the boys. "So don't f---ing tell me what you're not going to get charged with. I'm not hampered by the f---ing truth because I don't give a f---. People like you belong in jail. ... I'll f---ing charge you with whatever I -- I'll stick a f---ing kilo of coke in your pocket and put you away for f---ing 15 years."

Western New England University School of Law professor Bridgette Baldwin.

Obviously hyperbolic in some instances as the youths weren't alive at the time of the Kennedy assassination, legal experts say the tactics, nonetheless, are clearly out of bounds.



"The line you have to draw is when a suspect is not making a voluntary choice," said Western New England University School of Law professor Bridgette Baldwin, a former defense attorney. "They can't be coercive with you mentally or physically. If you're threatening to beat me even if you haven't laid hands on me, that's mental coercion."



Baldwin said the critical steps in dealing with any suspect in custody begin with offering them Miranda warnings about their rights to not answer questions and to have an attorney present. And, in the case of questioning juveniles, steps should be taken to ensure a parent or guardian is present. She said young people are particularly vulnerable during questioning, whether they committed a crime or not.



"Even if they did a bad thing, they're still children. They're impressionable. They're easily manipulated," Baldwin said, using the "Central Park Five" by way of example -- a reference to the five teens who admitted raping a jogger in New York City when they hadn't. "They all confessed to rape and none of them did it."



Statements gleaned under such circumstances can be inadmissible in court and may taint other statements an officer has made in relation to wholly unrelated cases, the professor said.

"(Bigda)'s saying: 'I can pin that on you and you weren't even born. I have that much power,'" Baldwin said. "This would question his integrity, his credibility on every single case that he ever touched."



The district attorney's office has borne the brunt of questions about Bigda's credibility, as dozens of drug prosecutions have crashed since the videos came to light. The controversy comes in the midst of an ongoing prosecution of former detective Kevin Burnham, who stands accused of stealing $400,000 from the Police Department's evidence room over the course of five years. His trial is scheduled for December.



It's all a headache for the Police Department and district attorney's office as well, which must manage any fallout from potential evidence tampering.



Threats of violence

The footage shows Bigda and Cournoyer needling the defendants in theoretically acceptable ways, had they been adults who had been read Miranda warnings. Much of the questioning may constitute perfectly acceptable tactics.



"Simply calling them names is not against the rules," Baldwin said. "What you're looking for lies more in words and conduct. Was he coercive? Was he intimidating? Was he bullying? How big is the room? How many officers were in the room?"

Early in the questioning of the teen in cell 4M, Bigda points to drops of blood on his boot and tells the boy that "if he doesn't stop lying" to Bigda, the boy's blood would end up on his other boot.



Later in the interview, when the 16-year-old suspect fumbles through an explanation of where the rolled coins came from, he is met with vitriol from Bigda.



"You know I'm going to beat the f--- out of you when we get back to Springfield ... because you just lied right to my face," Bigda says to the boy.

Later, referring to the eventual trip to the Springfield Police Department's headquarters, Bigda tells the boy: "When we hit that f---ing line, I'm going to bloody your body."



Westfield State University criminal justice professor Brian Rizzo, a retired New York City Police Department detective, said threats of violence are totally out of bounds, although a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed "trickery and deception" as acceptable tactics.



"Physical force cannot be used. Don't do it. Don't think about it. Don't threaten to do it,'" Rizzo said.



The Constitution and various U.S. Supreme Court decisions dictate suspects' rights in terms of interrogations, Rizzo added.

Brian Rizzo, professor of criminal justice, Westfield State University.

While the videos obtained by The Republican show no physical force used during the questioning, there was a separate excessive force allegation lodged the same night by a Wilbraham patrolman involved in the car chase. He said a Springfield detective, who he could not identify, kicked one suspect in the face when the boy was in handcuffs and on the ground.



Former Springfield detective Steven Vigneault resigned as a result of that allegation, but has said political pressure within the department forced him to quit, and that he was "bluffed" by the commissioner ahead of a disciplinary hearing. He denies kicking any of the suspects.

One boy went to the hospital for treatment after he was bitten by a police dog when he fled the Palmer scene, according to police reports. But another boy complains of his face hurting in the interrogation videos.



"Eye-f---ing me and everything," Bigda says as he begins questioning the boy in cell 7J, who later admits to a previous arrest for breaking and entering.



"It's not that, it's my face hurts," the boy responds.



Bigda counters: "You think it hurts now? You know what we're doing after this?"



The boy: "No, sir"



Bigda: "We're going back to f---ing Springfield." Then, gesturing to the cell's camera, he says: "See that thing up there? Right there? You know what that is?"



"Camera," the boy says, with Bigda responding: "That's a camera. Know what Springfield don't have? Cameras."



Bigda later mocks the same boy, who is Hispanic, bellowing "you probably don't even know who your father is" after threatening to "crush his skull" and telling him he has to survive the night -- "which is questionable," the detective adds.



Cournoyer is comparatively passive but chimes in at certain points.



"I mean, I'm chill but you know, you can see he dealt with a lot. So, you're f---ed, basically," Cournoyer says, referring to Bigda's anger at chasing the suspects through the woods.



Moments later, Bigda tells the boy: "Don't even f---ing speak if you're going to lie to me, because I'll f---ing kill you in the parking lot."



During further questioning of the boy in cell 4M, Bigda mocks the fact that the suspects are underage.



"I know you know you're a juvenile, blah, blah, blah all that other s--t, nothing's going to happen to ya. But you've got to remember -- you live in Springfield, right? ... So when I put you out there as the Police Department's bitch? And every time you f---ing step your head out," the detective says, leaving the prospect dangling.

Commissioner Barbieri has said he relied on advice from the city's Law Department in doling out Bigda's 60-day suspension, which ends in early December. The commissioner has said he declined to fire Bigda because a civil service appeal could be costly to the city's taxpayers.

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, who said he has not seen the footage but directed his law department to "seek as much disclosure as possible," has backed the commissioner.

The video below shows footage from three specific time periods:

5:09-5:15 a.m.:

5:16 to 5:28 a.m.:

5:31 to 5:45 a.m.:

NOTE: Video contains graphic language. The audio has been edited to remove references to full names and other potentially identifying information.