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Paid in Full, Still Waiting: Fall River Police Stonewall Search Warrant Records
The Fall River Police Department (FRPD) continues to delay our public records requests – this time delaying access to a critical record related to their questionable search warrant that Mayor Coogan has been blocking the city council from investigating.
Last month, I published an article detailing how the FRPD used the criminal justice system to obtain a search warrant under questionable pretenses to uncover the identity behind a fake Facebook profile, which posted critical comments about FRPD personnel—including Detective Christopher Teves (son of Chief Kelly Furtado)—between November 17 and December 3, 2025. The FRPD received information from Facebook in less than 24 hours. I’ve been told there is a way to speed up the process if you alert Facebook that the there is danger for a police officer or the public. I wanted to know exactly what they told Facebook to get a response so quickly because the social media posts where not threatening in anyway.
On March 28th, I submitted a request to the FRPD to get a copy of the paperwork they submitted to Facebook. It took 10 days, the maximum allowed limit, to get a response notifying me that I would have to pay $25 for the record.
The next day I went down to the FRPD and paid the $25 cash. The clerk told me she would call upstairs to the folks that handle public records and let them know I made payment. Here is the receipt.
19 days since I initiated the public record request and eight days after I made a cash payment, the FRPD public records tracking system still has it marked as “Waiting for Payment.”
Per the State, the first two hours of a public records request are free, so getting billed $25 means I’m being billed for three hours of work. So why isn’t the request completed eight days later? Why did it also take 10 days to tell me to pay $25? Did I get my first two hours free?
The FRPD is retaliating against Fall River Reporter
For three different public records requests, the FRPD asked permission from the state to bill me $48 an hour, nearly twice the state limit of $25. The request was denied by the state’s public records office and the state recommended the FRPD communicate with me directly. Not only has the FRPD not communicated directly (I sent them an email after I was notified of the decision), but they appealed the decision to further delay my access to my three different requests by another 15 days. Now the FRPD is delaying access to what they sent to Facebook.
Sgt. Aubin, one of the key players in the inappropriate search warrant article, is also the person that overseas the public records requests. In my view, that’s one reason they are delaying the information and trying to charge me twice the cost set by the state. It may also be retaliation since I’ve never been asked to pay a fee for a public record.
The Society of Professional Journalists has named the State of Massachusetts recipient of its 2026 Black Hole Award, “an annual dishonor recognizing government entities that demonstrate a troubling lack of transparency and disregard for the public’s right to know.” Fall River may be the least transparent city in the least transparent state.
