Former police officer accused of killing pregnant woman and staging it as a suicide

BOSTON (AP) — A former Massachusetts police officer pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of killing a woman he is accused of sexually exploiting when she was underage and then trying to stage the death as a suicide after she told him she was pregnant.

Matthew Farwell, 38, entered the plea during an initial appearance in federal court in Boston. He was handcuffed and led out of the room. A detention hearing is scheduled for Sept. 10.

Farwell was arrested at a shopping plaza in the city of Revere on Wednesday after he was indicted on charges he strangled Sandra Birchmore in early 2021 after she told him she was pregnant and he was the father. Birchmore was 23 years old.

Farwell killed Birchmore to prevent authorities from finding out details of his sexual offenses, according to allegations in the indictment.

Farwell worked as an officer for the police department in Stoughton, south of Boston, for 10 years, from 2012 until 2022. It wasn't immediately clear why he left the department.

Birchmore began participating in the police explorers program when she was 12 years old, according to the indictment in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.

Court documents say that Farwell, who was a police explorers volunteer, used his authority and access to groom, sexually exploit and then sexually abuse Birchmore when she was 15 and that he continued to have sex with her when she became an adult.

“During some of the shifts when Farwell was supposed to be performing his duties as a Stoughton police officer, he was instead engaged in sex acts with Birchmore,” according to the indictment.

In late 2020, Birchmore found out she was pregnant and told Farwell, according to the indictment.

FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Stephen Kelleher said Birchmore was excited when she found out she was pregnant and texted Farwell a poster she made celebrating the pregnancy. She had also reached out to a friend about baby clothes and to a photographer about potential baby photos, according to Kelleher.

Kelleher called the allegations against Farwell “depraved.”

“Matthew Farwell’s gun and badge did not grant him authority to violate the constitution, and it certainly didn’t entitle him to sexually exploit, abuse, and rape a child before killing her and her unborn baby in an attempt to cover up his alleged crimes," he said.

Investigators also believed Farwell staged the apartment to make it look like she had died by suicide, Kelleher said.

The next month, a friend of Birchmore's called the Stoughton Police Department to tell them Farwell had been having sex with Birchmore.

Farwell strangled Birchmore on about Feb. 1, 2021, and then used his police knowledge to stage her apartment to make it look as though she had died by suicide, according to the indictment.

On some occasions, Farwell had been on duty when he sexually abused Birchmore as a minor and he falsely claimed certain work hours to hide that offending behavior, court documents say.

Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara said Wednesday that the department had worked with other agencies, including the FBI, to investigate.

“The day after Sandra Birchmore was found dead in her Canton apartment, I ordered a lengthy and aggressive internal affairs investigation, the instructions of which made it clear that no stone should be left unturned," McNamara said in a statement.

“The alleged murder of Sandra is a horrific injustice," McNamara said. "The allegations against the suspect, a former Stoughton Police Officer, represent the single worst act of not just professional misconduct but indeed human indecency that I have observed in a nearly three-decade career in law enforcement."

If convicted of killing a witness or victim, Farwell would face a minimum sentence of life in prison. Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy on Wednesday declined to comment on whether federal authorities would seek to impose the death penalty if Farwell is found guilty, saying the decision would be made by the Department of Justice in Washington.

Massachusetts has outlawed capital punishment.

Another hearing is scheduled for Oct. 17.

Perry reported from Meredith, New Hampshire.

This photo provided by the Stoughton, Mass., Police Department shows Matthew Farwell, a former police officer who pleaded not guilty Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, to charges of killing a woman he is accused of sexually exploiting when she was underage and then trying to stage the death as a suicide after she told him she was pregnant. (Stoughton Police Department via AP)

This photo provided by the Stoughton, Mass., Police Department shows Matthew Farwell, a former police officer who pleaded not guilty Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, to charges of killing a woman he is accused of sexually exploiting when she was underage and then trying to stage the death as a suicide after she told him she was pregnant. (Stoughton Police Department via AP)

Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy holds a news conference at the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston on Wednesday, Aug,. 28, 2024, about the arrest and charges of former Stoughton Police officer Matthew Farwell accused of killing Sandra Birchmore. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP)

Acting United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Joshua Levy, right, takes questions from reporters as FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Stephen Kelleher, left, looks on during a news conference Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in Boston, held to announce the arrest of former Stoughton Police Detective Matthew Farwell on murder charges. (AP Photo/Steven LeBlanc)

FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Stephen Kelleher, left, and Acting United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Joshua Levy, right, face reporters during a news conference Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in Boston, held to announce the arrest of former Stoughton Police Detective Matthew Farwell on murder charges. (AP Photo/Steven LeBlanc)

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that he will “strongly request” that the House Ethics Committee not release the results of its investigation into ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz, rebuffing senators who are demanding access now that Gaetz is President-elect Donald Trump 's nominee for attorney general.

Johnson’s intervention is highly unusual, as the Ethics panel has traditionally operated independently. His move seems certain to add the growing furor on Capitol Hill over Gaetz’s nomination to become the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

"I’m going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report, because that is not the way we do things in the House,” Johnson told reporters at the U.S. Capitol. “And I think that would be a terrible precedent to set.”

Ethics reports have previously been released after a member's resignation, though it is extremely rare.

Johnson's comments were a reversal from Wednesday, when he suggested a hands-off approach to the Gaetz report. The "Speaker of the House is not involved in that and can’t be involved in that,” he previously said of the Ethics committee.

The bipartisan Ethics panel is under enormous pressure as it weighs what to do about its years-long probe into sexual misconduct and other allegations against Gaetz, who resigned from Congress on Wednesday after Trump announced him as his nominee for attorney general.

It is standard practice for the Ethics Committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart on the grounds that they lack jurisdiction to continue. But the circumstances with Gaetz are hardly standard, given his potential role in Trump's Cabinet. Senators saying the panel's material must see the light of day so that they can fully vet his nomination.

“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”

Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended with no federal charges.

“The rules of the House have always been that a former member is beyond the jurisdiction of the Ethics committee,” Johnson added. “And so I don’t think that’s relevant.”

But Republican and Democratic senators alike on the Judiciary Committee that would review Gaetz’s attorney general nomination have called for the report to be made available to them.

“I think it’s going to be material in the proceedings,” said Sen. Thomas Tillis, a North Carolina Republican.

Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said, “I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.”

However, the chairman of the Ethics panel, Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., says he doesn’t know if the committee could provide the report to the Senate: “That is something that staff is looking into and trying to provide some guidance to members."

When asked if he would at least discuss the report with members of the upper chamber, Guest said "that is a decision for the committee as a whole to take up at some point.”

Trump’s attorney general is expected to oversee radical changes to the Justice Department, which has been the target of Trump’s ire over two criminal cases it brought accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump, who cast himself as the victim of politically motivated prosecutions, vowed repeatedly on the campaign trail to carry out retribution against his political enemies if returned to the White House.

In a statement Wednesday announcing his pick, Trump said Gaetz would root out “systemic corruption” at the Justice Department and return the department “to its true mission of fighting crime and upholding our democracy and constitution.”

The federal sex trafficking investigation into Gaetz began under Attorney General Bill Barr during Trump’s first term and focused on allegations that Gaetz and onetime political ally Joel Greenberg paid underage girls and escorts or offered them gifts in exchange for sex.

Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Lisa Mascaro and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., speaks before President-elect Donald Trump arrives at a meeting of the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., as he arrives to speak at a meeting of the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Matt Gaetz talks before President-elect Donald Trump speaks during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)