6 days ago
Man involved in Springfield excessive force scandal as teen headed to prison in unrelated case
About a decade after teens accused a Springfield police detective of excessive force during a controversial 2016 arrest, one of the teens at the center of the case has been sentenced to prison for a different crime.
Now 25, Evdyele Oniel Pabon Flores, of Springfield, pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including manslaughter, assault and battery (attempt with firearm) and carrying a firearm without a license, in connection with a 2022 fatal shooting in Holyoke in which he was accused of shooting another man 10 times.
Flores was originally charged with murder.
On May 30, he was sentenced to 8-11 years in prison with about two years time served.
Read more: Embattled former police officer Gregg Bigda files another suit against Springfield
After gunshots were fired at the intersection of Pine and Sargeant streets in Holyoke around 8:20 p.m. on Dec. 7, 2022, Holyoke police found two vehicles that appeared to have crashed into one another — but they were empty.
On the ground next to the damaged vehicles, police saw a pile of spent shell casings.
Police searched the area and found a man lying down in the backyard of a nearby home with a gunshot wound in his stomach. First responders rushed the man, later identified as 49-year-old Chicopee man Luis Ramos, to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Authorities identified Pabon Flores, who was 21, as the suspected gunman in the fatal shooting. The investigation accused Pabon Flores, who was a passenger in one of the cars found in the crash, of firing more than 10 shots into Ramos, who was the driver of the other car.
Detectives charged Pabon Flores with murder in connection with the fatal shooting and he was added to the Massachusetts Most Wanted List in 2023.
In April 2023, Pabon Flores turned himself in at Holyoke District Court.
Holyoke Police detained Pabon Flores at the courthouse and took him to the city's police station for booking. He was arraigned on the murder charge and was ordered to be held without bail.
In 2016, the Springfield government published videos of Springfield narcotics detective Gregg A. Bigda haranguing two boys.
'I'll f---ing kill you in the parking lot ... and I'll stick a f---ing kilo of coke in your pocket and put you away for f---ing 15 years ... I'm not hampered by the truth because I don't give a f--- People like you belong in jail,' he screamed at a 16-year-old.
At another point, the police detective said, 'Motherf---er, I'll charge you with killing Kennedy and f---ing make it stick.'
'Who's the kid at the hospital? Look at that [pointing to his own boot]. That's his blood,' he also said. 'If I find out you're lying . . . [pointing to his boot again] that will be your blood on this shoe.'
Read more: Federal judge dismisses dueling lawsuits by embattled Springfield cop Gregg Bigda and city
The three boys involved in the scandal were identified at trial by their first names — Georgie, 16, Daniel, 15, and Evdyele, 14. Although, Pabon Flores was not in the videos.
The Hampden District Attorney's Office confirmed Pabon Flores' recent sentence but did not comment on his connection to the Bigda scandal.
In 2016, an officer had left an undercover police Chevy Trailblazer unlocked, unoccupied and with its motor running when the three boys stole it, officials said.
Detectives tracked the boys to Palmer after they heard a call about the stolen undercover police car being spotted in Wilbraham in the early-morning hours of Feb. 27, 2016. Police in neighboring communities chased the speeding car into Palmer where the chase stopped but the boys took off on foot. A state police K-9 officer stopped one of the teens and sent him to the hospital with dog bites and other injuries, according to police accounts.
In 2018, Bigda was indicted by a federal grand jury for excessive force in connection with punching and kicking the young car theft suspects during the 2016 arrest, two counts of 'abusive interrogation' for threatening to kill and plant drugs on them, plus drafting a false police report, officials said. He faced up to 15 years behind bars if convicted.
Read more: Springfield has paid out $877K since January to settle 3 lawsuits claiming police misconduct
Daniel testified he saw Bigda repeatedly punch Pabon Flores in the head while the boys were already in handcuffs on the ground. He told jurors Bigda then marched over to him, yelled: 'Welcome to white town' and kicked him in the face. Bigda denied doing either.
Prosecutors portrayed Bigda as a racist cop who attacked the Latino boys after they stole an undercover police car left running outside a Springfield pizza shop. However, Bigda lawyer Timothy Flaherty, during his opening and closing statements, argued the government cherry-picked evidence and witnesses to build a skewed case against his client.
After jurors deliberated for about nine hours over two days in 2021, Bigda was acquitted on four criminal counts.
In 2022, the Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission denied Bigda's application for certification, Alia Spring, a spokesperson for the commission, said in a statement. Bigda fought back, requesting a review and hearing about the denial. In April 2024, the commission issued its final decision that he was denied certification, Spring said. Bigda is now fighting that in Hampden Superior Court.
Read more: Community members say acquittal of Springfield detective Gregg Bigda in police brutality case further erodes trust in police, judicial system
However, POST Commission hearing officer, retired Judge Charles J. Hely, stated that the video recording of Bigda's 'behavior in the cells of the Palmer Police Station cannot be disputed.'
'Officer Bigda's threats and abusive behavior toward the fifteen-year-old and sixteen-year-old boys were shocking and inexplicable,' he wrote.
Republican reporter Stephanie Barry contributed to this reporting.
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Read the original article on MassLive.
