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Commendations September 6, 2006 - Personnel Order #2006-53 Sergeant Andrew Lipson On July 1, 2006 while assigned to the 551 unit, Sgt. Lipson was in the area of 1056 Beacon St. When he observed a male subject exit a vehicle and walk toward 1056 Beacon St. Upon noticing the marked police cruiser this male stopped, reversed direction and headed back to the street. Sgt. Lipson, having knowledge that 1056 Beacon St. has been the target in recent drug investigations; he circled the block, and returned to the area a few moments later. When he returned he noticed the male, later identified as, Cleris Zappi, was gone. About ten minutes passed when Sgt. Lipson saw Zappi and another subject, known to him as Brian Jumper exit 1056 Beacon St. Sgt. Lipson knew Jumper from past drug related arrests. Jumper was carrying a black shoulder bag and the two got into Zappi's car and drove away. A short time later, Sgt. Lipson observed two motor vehicle violations and conducted a traffic stop. Sgt. Lipson observed Jumper throw his bag into the back seat and he also could not see the operator's hands. Sgt. Lipson ordered both men out of the car and conducted a pat frisk of each subject, revealing over $2,000.00 in cash and marijuana. A search of the vehicle and the bag in the vehicle revealed more drugs and cash. The suspects were interviewed and made admissions that they were going to a location in Somerville to make a drug purchase. These arrests are a great example of excellent police work. Sgt. Lipson's knowledge of a drug location and a suspect with drug arrests and his persistence to remain in the area and follow through on his suspicions got two potentially dangerous drug dealer's off the streets. Sgt. Lipson is commended for his actions in this case. Patrol Officer Thomas Shea On July 3, 2006, while assigned to the 542 unit, Officer Thomas Shea, along with other police units, received a broadcast from Dispatch reporting a suspicious male in the area of Winchester St. ringing door bells attempting to gain access to apartment buildings. The report continued the same male was now loading items into a red mini van. The witness who called police was able to get a license plate and broadcast that to the responding Brookline Police units. The registration was run and the vehicle was listed out of an address in Roxbury. Knowing that Harvard St. was the most direct route from Winchester St. to Roxbury, Officer Shea positioned himself in the area of School St. and Harvard St. A short time later Officer Shea observed the vehicle and acting on reasonable suspicion that a crime had occurred he activated his overhead lights and conducted a motor vehicle stop of the van and conducted a further investigation. Officer Shea observed the operator of the van to be nervous and sweating profusely. In plain view Officer Shea observed a large amount of US coins strewed across the floor of the van, based on his knowledge of recent residential burglaries, where loose change and cash were a target, Officer Shea believed these coins were probably stolen. A registry of motor vehicle's license check was conducted on the operator, Stephen Jones, and his license status was suspended. He was placed under arrest. A subsequent inventory search of the van uncovered thousands of dollars in stolen property, including a ladies watch, an i-pod, two laptop computers, cash, a still camera and video games. Officer Shea recognized these items as being typical of residential burglaries, in particular the recent burglaries in Brookline. The property recovered from the van was linked to several burglaries in Brookline, South Boston and Brighton. Mr. Jones is a career criminal who has targeted the citizens of Brookline as well as other communities. Officer Shea is commended for his diligence, knowledge and observations in the successful and safe apprehension of this offender. Patrol Officer John Bradley On July 8, 2006 at approximately 1:00AM., while assigned to the 459 unit, Officer John Bradley was patrolling the area of Lee St. and Warren St. when he observed a male subject next to an SUV parked in a private driveway on Dudley St. Officer Bradley observed the male then walk away from the SUV and stand against the wall in front of the driveway. Officer Bradley, having knowledge of several recent car breaks in the area, approached the male to conduct a field interrogation. He asked the male if he lived there to which he relied "no." He identified the male as Granville James. He further inquired about his presence in the driveway near a vehicle that has its interior light on. Mr. James denied ever being in the driveway or near the SUV. This denial gave Officer Bradley reasonable suspicious that a crime may have just occurred or was about to occur. Officer Bradley then observed a second car in the driveway also with its interior light on. Officer Bradley continued his inquiry which revealed more untruths about why James was in the area and how he got there. He stated he had traveled by MBTA to Brookline Village and was just out walking around. A pat frisk of James revealed a set of car keys which were later liked to a vehicle parked on Hillside road registered to a woman with the same last name as James. James denied that he had driven the car there and his untruths began to increase Officer Bradley's suspicion that James was in the area breaking into cars. The residents of the home were contacted and they reported they did not leave the interior lights on in either of their vehicles, but that both vehicles were probably unlocked. Based on the thorough investigation of Officer Bradley James was arrested for two counts of breaking and entering. Officer Bradley's alertness to first spot the suspect and his subsequent inquiries of him are examples of excellent police work. Officer Bradley is commended for his actions in apprehending this suspect, who also had a long criminal history for these types of crimes. Sergeant Mark Trahon On July 10, 2006 at 5:00AM. Officer's Disario and Yanez observed a white vehicle in the area of Harvard St. and Harvard Ave. The vehicle turned onto Harvard Ave. traveling the wrong way on a one way St. They observed the vehicle a few moments later in the parking lot of 110 Harvard Ave. As the approached the vehicle they discovered no occupants and the engine was off, but the air vent was running, indicating it had just been turned off. They observed the ignition was damaged and the vehicle, a White Acura, was determined to be stolen. Other Officer's responded to the area in an attempt to locate the occupants of the vehicle. A few moments later, while assisting in the search, Officer Bradley discovered another car in the parking lot of 99 Park St., just a few blocks from where the first vehicle was located, with the break lights illuminated rolling out of a parking space. This vehicle, as grey Honda Civic, also had damage to the ignition and was also discovered to be a stolen vehicle. With the discovery of these two stolen vehicles in the same area, Sergeant Trahon coordinated the efforts of all available patrol units to search the area for possible suspects. Officer's Kevin Sullivan, Steven Yung, and David Cheung began searching the area both on foot and from their cruiser's. A few moments later Officer Michael Heavey and Officer Donal Kerrigan observed two suspects on bicycle's traveling on Beacon St near 1501, which is only a few blocks from the stolen motor vehicle's. They attempted to catch up with them to speak with them but lost sight of them. Officer Heavey was able to get a description including specific clothing, a black baseball hat worn backwards with white lettering on it. All Officers continues to search the area for the suspects. Approximately twenty minutes later Officer Bradley observed a Maroon Chevrolet Blazer in the area of Park St traveling at a low rate of speed. The operator was on a cell phone and appeared to be searching for someone. Believing this vehicle was connected to the suspects Officer Bradley was going to stop the car. The operator spotted Officer Bradley and sped up driving away. Officer Bradley gave out a description of the vehicle as he lost sight of it. A few moments later Officer Kevin Sullivan spotted the vehicle on Marion St at Beacon St. traveling at a high rate of speed. He was able to get a partial plate and gave out that information over the radio. Shortly thereafter, Officer John Sullivan, who was working a private detail and Officer Yanez observed the vehicle and conducted a motor vehicle stop at 1153 Beacon St. At the time of the stop there were four individuals in the vehicle. The driver did not have a driver's license and was arrested. A search of the vehicle revealed two screw drivers, through the officers training and experience they knew these items are used in automobile thefts. The Subjects were separated and all told conflicting stories about where they had been throughout the night. Ultimately, they suspects made admissions to stealing both the grey Honda Civic and the white Acura as well as tires from other cars and two bicycle's, which were recovered after the admission. All four parties were arrested. This is an example of excellent police work. The communication and collective effort of all the officer's involved and remaining in the area continuing to search, enabled them to catch these four criminals and recover several stolen items. All of these officer's are commended for their actions in this incident. Detective Lieutenant Myles Murphy On July 21, 2006 at approximately 7:00 PM., Brookline Police units responded to a residential alarm on Columbia St. Upon arrival a neighbor of the Columbia Rd. home reported to the responding units that just before the alarm went off he observed a male walk past the home, enter the driveway of the home nest door, come back to the street and then go up into the driveway of the first home. Very shortly after the male emerged from the driveway the alarm went off. The neighbor described the male as being in his 20's wearing all black clothing, including a wide brimmed hat, medium build with something covering his hands. The residence of the Columbia Rd. home returned and a check on the house was conducted. The residents reported the alarm was activated from the motion detectors on the front windows. There were no signs of a break at that time. Lt. Murphy, having knowledge that there had been several residential burglaries in the area recently and that many of them involved culprits opening first floor windows to gain entrance, remained in the area and maintained surveillance in an attempt to locate the suspect. At approximately 8:15PM. Lt. Murphy was on Brainerd Rd. where he observed a subject fitting the description of the man observed by the neighbor on Columbia Rd. The suspect was carrying two bags and appeared to struggling with them. Lt. Murphy exited his cruiser and walked to ward the suspect, who he observed drop one of the bags he was carrying exposing in plain view a lap top computer, an item he knew was the target of the recent residential breaks in the area. Lt. Murphy approached the suspect, identified himself and asked him where he was going. The suspect stated he was going home. He was identified as Alfonzo Holmen and stated he had a criminal record, but is dated back to 1986. A check on him revealed he lied about his record having been arraigned recently on Burglary charges. Det. Crespo came to the scene of the stop with the witness for a show up identification. The witness stated the clothing and hat were the same but he never got a good look at his face. Holmen became nervous and kept putting his hands near his waist, a pat frisk revealed a pocket knife and several items of jewelry in his pants pocket. He was also found with another lap top computer. All of these items were the target items of the recent burglaries. Holmen was arrested and subsequently linked to additional burglaries in Brighton. Lt. Murphy's diligence in remaining in the area to attempt to locate the suspect and his knowledge of the recent burglaries and items targeted are exemplary of excellent police work. Through his efforts a career criminal was apprehended and several crimes were cleared. Lt. Murphy is commended for his efforts in this case. Sergeant Kevin Mealy On July 23, 2006, while assigned to the 545 unit, Officer Robert Disario responded to and apartment on Beacon St. where he met with two residents who reported suspicious activity of their third roommate, Christian Toomey. They reported early in the morning at about 1:45AM. Toomey came home with a lot of bags and electronic equipment. Later in the day Toomey had left all of the items in the common living room area of the apartment. This was suspicious to them because Toomey was behind on his rent and could not afford these items. While Officer Disario was still in the apartment Toomey returned home. He reported to Officer Disario that the items belonged to a friend of his who left for Puerto Rico and asked him to store it for him. Believing the items may be stolen Officer Disario asked for a contact number for his friend. Toomey could not provide one. Officer Disario asked if he could take the items and have his friend pick them up at the police station, Toomey agreed to let Officer Disario take the items. Research of three computers performed by Officer Shea revealed they belonged to the residents of 75 Peterborough St. in Boston. Later the same day Det. Crespo and Officer Stephenson went back to this Beacon St. address. Toomey was not home so they waited. A while later Toomey arrived home in his Jeep with a passenger, who was identified as the friend who allegedly had gone to Puerto Rico. It was determined that Toomey lied about this friend being the owner of the property and he came up with another story of having bought all of the property from two guys for $500.00. He was arrested for receiving stolen property. Continued investigation by Sergeant Mealy, Sergeant Lipson and Detective Crespo revealed that Toomey had worked for a reality company as a broker, which would have supplied him with the master keys to 75 Peterborough St. property. He had been terminated from that job after 10 days, for reasons unrelated to this incident. The above investigation and arrest is a great example of thorough police work. The ability to discover the true ownership of the computers, the continued follow up investigation to link the arrestee with the Peterborough address are excellent examples of good police work the above mentioned Officers are commended for their actions in this incident. Sergeant Paul Campbell On August 12, 2006 at 4.45 am a call was received by two females who reported they were just robbed in the area of Harvard St. and Sewall Ave. They reported they were robbed by a Black male who fled in a black SUV heading toward Brookline Village. Within moments, Sgt. Campbell observed a black SUV at Route 9 and Brookline Ave. The traffic at this time of the morning is virtually non-existent, based on the time and the proximity of the SUV from the crime scene, Sgt. Campbell believed this was the vehicle involved in the robbery. Sgt. Campbell conducted a motor vehicle stop of the SUV and made some inquiries of the driver and the passengers. The victims were brought to the scene for a show-up identification, where they positively identified one of the males, identified as Darron Santiago as the one who committed the robbery. Sgt. Campbell gave Santiago his Miranda Warnings and questioned Santiago who admitted to committing the robbery. A search of the vehicle uncovered the stolen hand bag and all of the victim's property was recovered. The two passengers were also arrested. Sgt. Campbell is commended for his actions in the incident, his alertness in locating and stopping the fleeing motor vehicle and possibly preventing any further crimes of violence such as this. The above are examples of the excellent police work that was conducted by both the men and women of the Brookline Police Department. These Officers are to be commended for their efforts in keeping Brookline a safe place to live, work and visit. Daniel C. O'Leary
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