Trial Nears in Alleged Beating

Harry A. Byrne Jr.—the Boston Police Department sergeant who allegedly assaulted a Harvard undergraduate after arresting him nearly two years ago—will face a jury on Aug. 25 on the charge of violating the student’s civil rights, according to court documents.

After a series of altercations around the Boston College campus, Byrne arrested Garett D. Trombly ’03 and several of his friends on the night of Sept. 9, 2001. Trombly, then a Harvard junior concentrating in economics, was charged with public consumption of alcohol, resisting arrest and assault and battery on a police officer.

Those charges were dropped for lack of evidence about a month later—but an investigation was soon launched into Trombly’s allegation that Byrne had repeatedly struck him in the police station, producing a broken jaw which remained wired shut for almost a month.

In January 2002, a federal grand jury handed down the civil rights indictment—and three counts of witness tampering against other police officers in conjunction with the federal investigation of the case—against Byrne, who is being prosecuted by the office of the U.S. Attorney.

Trombly—who declined comment, deferring questions to his lawyer, Andrew Good, until Byrne’s case goes to trial—is scheduled to testify for the prosecution. Beyond his role as key witness, Trombly’s involvement in the case has been “virtually nil,” according to Good.

The case has taken more than a year and a half to go to trial due to numerous courtroom maneuverings, motions and continuances.

The trial date has been postponed a total of four times, most recently in July of this year.

According to a brief filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office last month, the first continuance was granted on the initial scheduled trial date of September 2002 “at the last moment because of the illness of defense counsel’s wife.” The next delay was caused by the appointment of Byrne’s lawyer, Kenneth Fishman, to a judgeship in December 2002. Byrne remained without counsel—producing yet another postponement while he tried to find a lawyer—until this spring, when he retained Frank A. Libby Jr., who is still his lawyer. Neither Libby nor Fishman could be reached for comment.

Thomas J. Davis—a high-school friend of Trombly’s who was attending Boston College when he was arrested along with Trombly—said he thought this cascade of continuances represented “an effort by the defense to just stall.”

Davis said that he suspects Byrne and his lawyer hoped to postpone the trial to the point that Davis’ and other key witnesses’ memories of the night in question grew dim. This argument was also made in the U.S. Attorney’s failed opposition to the most recent motion for continuance of the trial.

But Davis said he thought such an attempt would have little effect.

“I feel like they’re delaying the inevitable,” he said. “What happened that night will forever have a lasting impression in my mind, and if it’s left a lasting impression in my mind, just imagine what it did to Garett psychologically.”

In Sept. 2001, Davis told The Crimson that he had seen inside the room where the 160-pound Trombly was allegedly attacked by the significantly larger Byrne in the presence of two other officers.

“[The police] left the door wide open,” Davis said at the time. “I thought [Trombly] was going to get booked. I heard the sergeant say, ‘Don’t think I won’t kick your ass. You were a tough guy on the street. Let’s see how tough you are in here.’”

According to Davis, Byrne then threw a punch at Trombly’s face. Davis said that he yelled and the door was subsequently closed.

Byrne’s federal case has also been complicated by a number of motions to exclude evidence from the trial, coming from both sides of the aisle.

Late last month, Judge Richard G. Stearns allowed a defense motion to exclude references to two previous incidents involving Byrne.

One occurred in September 1991, when Byrne allegedly assaulted Joseph Mulry, a patron of the Jukebox, a nightclub where Byrne worked part-time. Stearns prohibited the prosecution from entering evidence of the Mulry case for the time being, but mentioned in his ruling that the prosecutors might attempt to bring it up later.

The second concerned an alleged screaming outburst directed by Byrne at a man, Michael Tiberio, walking down Tremont Street in June 1998. Stearns ruled that this incident was irrelevant to the case involving Trombly because it “establishes no more than that the defendant has a bad temper, which he has displayed in the past.” Stearns said this constituted an impermissible attempt to use past evidence of bad character in order to prove later accusations.

In January 2002, the head of the BPD union had claimed that Byrne’s prosecution had been taken over by federal authorities because Trombly was “a white, affluent Harvard student.” In July, the U.S. Attorney’s office filed a motion to exclude evidence that Trombly had worked at a Cape Cod country club frequented by Boston Police Commissioner Paul F. Evans. Stearns denied this motion.

Also in late July of this year, Byrne’s attorney filed a failed motion to allow an extended questionnaire to be filled out by potential jurors—covering issues such as police brutality—in addition to the standard juror-selection queries. Stearns simultaneously denied a defense motion to give jurors a guided in-person tour of the Brighton, Mass. district station house in which Trombly was allegedly beaten.

Through all these legal twists, Davis said he has had almost no contact with the prosecution, for whom he is to testify.

“I haven’t really been prepped at all,” he said. “I guess they’re waiting for confirmation that the next trial date is actually going to happen.”

And after so much time, Davis said he is eager to get his involvement in Byrne’s prosecution over with.

“Garett, myself and I know a lot of other witnesses have graduated from college and have gone their own ways,” he said. “It’s just interfering with people’s lives...With all these postponements, I’m beginning to lose faith in the judicial system, at least in the city of Boston.”

Davis said he had remained close with Trombly since the incident, though they had been forced to curtail the scenes of their socializing.

“Ever since that incident, [Trombly] never came to BC anymore for obvious reasons,” Davis said, adding that he himself “was never much of a Cambridge fan.”

In an unrelated case, Byrne and a number of other white police officers have filed a civil suit against the BPD, charging reverse discrimination in job promotions as a result of the affirmative action policy established by the BPD in response to a suit in the 1980s. That suit is scheduled to go to trial in October.

Byrne could not be reached for comment.

—David H. Gellis contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Simon W. Vozick-Levinson can be reached at vozick@fas.harvard.edu.