While in being interrogated, two 16-year-old boys were threatened by police. A police officer threatened to kill and beat the boys. He also said he would plant coke on them. The boys were underage and questioned without parents or legal representatives present.
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.