If you’re a cop charged with beating a drunk, or even worse, a cop accused of involuntary manslaughter and perjury, you’ve probably got a few other question marks in your permanent record as well.
C’mon down, ex-Boston police officers Christopher Cunniff and Jenn Penton.
Penton you just learned about. Until Monday she was a Mass State Police lieutenant. She’s now stripped of her certification, after being charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a Mass State Police cadet in 2024, and then lying about it to a grand jury.
Then there’s that warning she wrote in Woburn for a marked lanes violation to a fellow MSP trooper in 2023. He hit a disabled van head-on. One of the passengers in the van died of his injuries a month later.
A blood test of the trooper’s BAC level reportedly showed .11 – legally drunk, which Penton didn’t mention. She didn’t interview him for eight days. The incident report doesn’t even mention the death.
In the end, Penton just wrote him a warning, after which she was promoted to lieutenant and the killer trooper was promoted to sergeant. Professional courtesy….
But first let’s talk about ex-Sgt. Christopher Cunniff. He was arrested after the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Southie last year. He was charged with beating a drunk in an alley in South Boston after the boozer took a Lyft back to Southie from J.J. Foley’s.
Cunniff tailed him in an unmarked police cruiser, accompanied by a second man who was not a police officer – on that the BPD and the Suffolk County District Attorney agree. The second man has not been charged, at least so far.
After observing the video of the stomping, Superior Court Judge Christopher P. Belezos wrote this scathing opinion of the one-sided street fight.
“The man who emerged from the police vehicle threw the first punch, followed by at least one and possibly two more blows. After the first punch, the alleged victim appeared to be helpless.”
Judge, tell us what happened next, in Southie, after the St. Patrick’s Day parade?
“The man who emerged from the driver’s side of the car then forcefully guided the alleged victim into an alley where third-party witnesses reported that a one-sided beating ensued.”
A few days later, Cunniff wisely retired, one step ahead of the posse. The case lingers on, mostly because prosecutors can’t decide what should be done about the civilian passenger in Cunniff’s BPD cruiser.
Cunniff became a rich man while on the job. But now, with his actions videotaped for all to see, Cunniff cries poor mouth and thrusts his hand out… again!
Before trial, Cunniff is begging the state to pay for his related costs of trial — a medical expert, a private investigator and transcription of records.
“The defendant has recently retired,” Cunniff’s private attorney Kevin Mullen wrote in a motion for a handout, “and as a result, his income has been drastically reduced, but his financial obligations have remained the same, including the support of his family.
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Or if you can’t pay the bills.
For the record, here is what Cunniff made in his last three full years on the BPD:
2022: $206,081.43 (including $67,571.72 in overtime).
2023: $219,954.80 ($77,173.09 in OT).
2024: $314,674.67 ($90,949,43 in OT).
Now he grabs a bloated city pension. His base pay (on which the pension is based) was mostly around $150K in his three highest years. So Cunniff’s annual kiss in the mail should be approximately $120,000 a year, or ten grand a month.
Then there’s the house Cunniff owns on Orchard Street in Quincy. According to the city assessing department, he bought it for $1.05 million in 2021. Zillow says the Cunniff mansion is now worth $1,185,500.
Yet he has the gall to claim he’s broke and you should pick up the tab for his legal expenses beyond his lawyer.
Let me ask you this: is your net worth more or less than Sgt. Cunniff’s? Do you think the state would pick up your legal expenses if you did what he’s accused of doing to the guy staggering out of J.J. Foley’s?
“The client,” his Quincy lawyer writes, “would retain these necessary services if he was financially able to do so… The defendant is unable to pay….”
Cry me a bleepin’ river. Who does Cunniff think he is, an illegal alien cholo?
Mullen did not return calls this week seeking comment.
Since the beating victim had spent most of St. Patrick’s Day evening at J.J. Foley’s, I wanted to ask Mullen where his client unwound that evening before his workout in the alley. And who was that second person?
Are civilians supposed to be joyriding in the front seat of police cars?
As for the other scandal-scarred ex-Boston cop, Jenn Penton, her Internal Affairs Officer Resume turned out to be a little thin. The BPD says these five pages are it. They also say there’s nothing else in Anti-Corruption, where BPD bad behavior is sometimes broomed, under the rubric, “The investigation continues.”
In 2013, Penton was being featured in a “reality” TV show called Boston’s Finest.
A citizen complained that “he was pulled over for nothing… for ‘Obscure Number Plate.’”
“(Redacted) stated the female officer became more rude to him when he expressed his concern about being on camera (reality show was being filmed).”
Hey, pal, the show must go on. Hooray for Hollywood.
Earlier in 2013, she was in the South End for an NSTAR power outage.
“Officer Penton was involved in a Motor Vehicle accident at Mass Av and St. Botolph St with her Department Vehicle. Officer Penton failed to notify Operations immediately.”
Here’s another complaint about the woman now accused of involuntary manslaughter and perjury:
“An audit of court vacation days showed that Officer Penton may have appeared for court on a number of cases in which her attendance was not necessary.”
Except, perhaps, for her paycheck. For the record, last full year, Lt. Penton pocketed $178,230 from the MSP, as she was losing a photo finish with a state grand jury.
Final thought: It’s not the high cost of law enforcement that’s ruining Massachusetts, it’s the high cost of the corruption of law enforcement.
And it never ends.
