Bristol County District Attorney angry, disturbed, after having to dismiss drug case against four co-defendants due to egregious police misconduct

Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn, III has announced that his office has agreed to the dismissal of indictments against four co-defendants who were charged with narcotics offenses resulting from a 2017 wiretap investigation. 

According to the DA, the dismissal of the charges against Steven Ortiz, Tommy Ortiz, Jason Darosa and Katherine Espinal Parades were based upon the egregious police misconduct of former New Bedford Police Detective, Jared Lucas, and the Court’s discrediting of the same Informant used by Detective Lucas in a prior narcotics case. 

The Commonwealth stated in its filing with the Court on Friday that after review of the Court’s previous findings in Com v. Miguel Martinez and the motion testimony of witnesses on the current narcotics cases, the 2017 wiretap investigation was so tainted that dismissal was warranted.  The Court accepted the Commonwealth’s recommendation, indicating it was the “appropriate” result. 

The Court previously concluded in Com v. Martinez, that former New Bedford Detective Jared Lucas committed “gross misconduct” for having an on again, off again 7-year intimate sexual relationship with one of his Informants, Carly Medeiros. That time frame established by the Court covers the 2017 wiretap investigation and co-defendants listed above.  The Court further stated in Martinez, “On the whole, the evidence indicates that Medeiros and Lucas engaged in mutual use of one another in order to achieve their goals.”   The Court indicated in the Martinez case that other Detectives were not aware of the relationship between former Detective Lucas and Carly Medeiros and specifically credited the testimony of Detective Barbosa. Nevertheless, the Court found that “Lucas’s misconduct and Ms. Medeiros’ lack of reliability, if included in the affidavit, would have negated the magistrate’s probable cause finding.  Accordingly, ….., suppression is required.”  The Court further found in support of suppression in Martinez, that “Ms. Medeiros’s testimony was replete with inconsistencies and falsehoods”, she “has many reasons to lie” and that “she is aware of the potential impact of her personal relationship with Mr. Lucas in pending cases” and “appears to relish in causing the most damage, frequently shading the facts in her efforts to do so”.    

During hearings regarding the 2017 wiretap investigation, similar evidence through witness testimony was established that former New Bedford Detective Jared Lucas presented Carly Medeiros as a reliable confidential informant which was used to support the applications for warrants without disclosing the nature of his relationship with Medeiros.  During the current motion hearing, in December 2024, now retired Jared Lucas invoked his fifth amendment privilege and chose not to testify.    Witness testimony in the current cases also established that the warrants could not stand on their own if Medeiros’s information was excluded from them.  The evidence concluded that the sexual relationship between former Detective Jared Lucas and Carly Medeiros was inextricably intertwined in these cases and that the failure to disclose the relationship tainted the investigation and dismissal was appropriate. 

“I am very angry and disturbed that the charges in these cases had to be dismissed because of the egregious police misconduct of former Officer Jared Lucas. Which involved his undisclosed sexual relationship with an informant.  Significant efforts and resources were put into this investigation that involved the Ortiz brothers who had significant criminal records that include drug dealing.  The conduct of Lucas clearly compromised the integrity of the investigation which continues to undermine the public’s confidence in law enforcement despite the good work done by most officers in a very difficult job,” District Attorney Quinn said.