A Massachusetts prosecutor has promised to evaluation all instances dealt with by police Officer John Donnelly after a HuffPost report exposed Donnelly’s position in planning the lethal 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Middlesex County District Lawyer Marina Ryan introduced Friday that her workplace is now “completely reviewing any pending or closed instances” during which Donnelly, a patrolman in Woburn, Massachusetts, was concerned.
“We can be issuing a discovering discover disclosing this matter to protection counsel on these instances,” Ryan stated in a statement. “That discover has already been added to our publicly accessible listing of officers topic to exculpatory proof disclosure.”
On Thursday, HuffPost revealed a report detailing how Donnelly, 33, was amongst lots of of white supremacists who descended on Charlottesville in August 2017 for a “Unite the Proper” rally, terrorizing the city whereas chanting slogans corresponding to “Jews won’t exchange us” and violently attacking counterprotesters. The bloody weekend culminated with a neo-Nazi driving his automobile right into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Donnelly attended the rally as a bodyguard for Richard Spencer, a outstanding white supremacist. Leaked chat logs from a neo-Nazi Discord server present Donnelly performed an integral half in planning the weekend’s occasions.
The messages Donnelly posted on Discord present he might have belonged to the white supremacist group Identification Evropa. His messages have been additionally filled with racist and antisemitic slurs, and at occasions they advocated violence in opposition to leftists and minorities.
After attending the Charlottesville rally, Donnelly returned to Woburn, the place he continued to be a police officer for the following 5 years.
HuffPost’s report was primarily based on analysis by a collective of antifascist researchers known as Ignite the Right.
“We’re conscious about the best way during which these allegations tear on the material of belief which exists between communities and the police departments which serve them,” District Lawyer Ryan stated in her assertion.
The New England Innocence Undertaking, a civil rights group devoted to stopping and correcting wrongful convictions, known as on the district lawyer to go additional than simply reviewing Donnelly’s instances.
“Each case this officer touched needs to be dismissed, each conviction vacated,” the group stated in a statement on Twitter. “There is no such thing as a integrity in a system that depends on his credibility, judgment, or equity. Nothing he has stated or accomplished within the job may be enough to deliver felony penalties to another person.”
Donnelly, the New England Innocence Undertaking added, is probably going an indication of a extra systemic downside within the Woburn Police Division.
“This white supremacist officer had companions, supervisors, & trainers,” the group stated. “If he made arrests, prosecutors and judges relied on his reviews and testimony. But, NONE of those folks acknowledged and uncovered him; they enabled him to be ready of energy over our group.”
In anticipation of HuffPost’s report on Thursday, the Woburn Police Division suspended Donnelly pending an investigation.
“The Charlottesville rally is a darkish second in our historical past, and deeply disturbing,” Woburn Mayor Scott Galvin stated in a press release. “The Metropolis of Woburn is taking these allegations severely by investigating the incident completely, and I’ll transfer to terminate Officer Donnelly if the investigation concludes that the allegations are correct.”
Donnelly was not solely a cop; he was additionally the president of a “again the blue” nonprofit known as Irish Angel, which raised cash for legislation enforcement causes. He was an award-winning actual property agent within the Boston space.
Irish Angel advised HuffPost on Thursday that Donnelly had been eliminated as president of the group.
Century 21, the true property company for which Donnelly labored, confirmed on Friday that Donnelly had been fired.