WORCESTER – The City of Worcester paid a law firm over $258,232 between February 27, 2023 and November 1. 2024 to represent the city in the U.S. Department of Justice pattern or practice investigation of the city and its police department.
The firm, Nixon Peabody LLP, has 11 locations in the United States, including in Boston, and four international locations. The firm remains retained by the city, so additional invoices are likely.
The city paid the total amount over 18 invoices, with the largest single invoice of $41,171 paid on October 30, 2023. The next largest amount the city paid at one time occurred on February 27, 2023, the first payment to the firm. The full list of payments can be found at the bottom of this page.
On November 15, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division announced it opened a pattern or practice investigation into the Worcester Police Department. The civil, not criminal, investigation, aims to identify systemic patterns or practices that violate civil rights.
A 1994 law authorized the investigations, and the DOJ conducted around 78 pattern and practice investigations prior to the investigation in Worcester.
The DOJ released a report on the investigation on December 9, 2024. The executive summary of the report presents two main findings:
- “WPD uses excessive force that violates the Fourth Amendment. Officers unreasonably deploy Tasers, use police dogs, and strike people in the head. Officers rapidly escalate minor incidents by using more force than necessary, including during encounters with people who have behavioral health disabilities or are in crisis.”
- “WPD engages in outrageous government conduct that violates the constitutional rights of women suspected of being involved in the commercial sex trade by engaging in sexual contact during undercover operations. This violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause.”
Find coverage of the finding of the DOJ report related to excessive force, or coverage of its findings related to sexual misconduct
Brian Kelly, a partner at Nixon Peaboy LLP, represents the city in the investigation. Before joining Nixon Peabody as partner in 2013, Kelly served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts for 23 years. That same office supported the DOJ Civil Rights Division, which led the investigation of the WPD.
On December 9, 2024, prior to the release of the report by the DOJ, Kelly released a statement.
As This Week in Worcester previously reported, many of the claims made in Kelly’s statement were false or misleading.
