r/CasesWeFollow • u/Pixiegirls1102 • 12h ago
🏛️Federal Criminal Case⚖️ US v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Day 4
US v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Day 4
10/15/2026 @ 9:00 AM
Massachusetts
************************************************************\*
📢NEW: Case Hubs🚨🗃️
************************************************************\*
Federal prosecutors allege that former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell groomed and sexually abused Sandra Birchmore after meeting her through the department’s youth Police Explorers program. They say the relationship began when Birchmore was 15 and continued for years, including while Farwell was on duty. Prosecutors further allege that he concealed the encounters by falsifying work-hour records and that, after Birchmore became pregnant and told him he was the father, he had a motive to silence her.
The prosecution’s central claim is that Farwell strangled Birchmore on February 1, 2021, to prevent her from reporting conduct that could have exposed him to federal charges and then staged her apartment to make the death appear to be a suicide. The Massachusetts state authorities did not charge Farwell criminally after the state-police investigation, relying on the medical examiner’s initial suicide ruling and concluding that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him. Federal investigators later revisited the case, and prosecutors now point to evidence including Farwell’s presence at Birchmore’s apartment, their history of sexual choking, and the medical examiner’s later change of the death classification from suicide to undetermined. Farwell has pleaded not guilty and maintains that Birchmore died by suicide.
✨✨Previous Day & Recap
🔊🎥Trial Updates📡
These people will be updating the trial and posting on these links below. Since it's a federal case, no camera, audio, or streaming is allowed.
- Grant Smith Ellis: https://nitter.cf/GrantSmithEllis
- Amelia Stern: https://nitter.cf/ameliarstern1
- Phantomsplit (a member of our sub): https://www.youtube.com/@SomeCourtFollower
- Sue O'Connell: https://nitter.cf/SueOC_NBCBoston
- MichelleMcPhee: https://nitter.cf/MicheleMcPhee
- Kristina Rex: https://nitter.cf/KristinaRex
🚨✨More Info/Documents
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/united-states-v-matthew-farwell.
⚠️\*Please be aware that some of these exhibits are) ***graphic in nature***. We have identified that the following photos show Sandra's body. Please proceed with caution:
- Day 2, Exhibit 9: Not very graphic, but shows body from behind, good for seeing angle of body position if you are unclear from testimony
- Day 2, Exhibit 11: Shows body from front
- Day 2, Exhibit 14: Shows body from front
- Day 2, Exhibit 16: Shows body from front
- Day 2, Exhibit 20: Close up from front
- Day 2, Exhibit 21: Close up from top
- Day 2, Exhibit 23: Close up from behind, good for seeing angle of body position
- Day 2, Exhibit 35: Close up from side
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/united-states-v-matthew-farwell/farwell-exhibits-day-4
Attachments
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 060: ⚠️Autopsy photos: eye, head and neck areas, strangling
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 125: Birchmore iPhone12 Document
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 128: Birchmore iPhoneXS Document
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 133: Farwell Bio Data document
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 134: Stoughton Daily Roster
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 135: Farwell Special Comp Time
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 136: Farwell Earnings
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 137: Farwell Attendance
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 138: Dispatch Log
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 139: Call Log
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 306: Explorers Academy Syllabus
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 342: Young Sandra Birchmore Photo
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 416: GrayKey Progress Report
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 417: Birchmore Mac Extr Report
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 418: Cellebrite Extraction
- USA v. Matthew Farwell - Trial Exhibit 419: GrayKey iPhoneXS Birchmore
\Graphic Material Removed])
👨🏻👩👧👦👨👩👧👦 FAMILY TREE🌳
\Family Tree is updated daily])

📜RECAP🔡
9:08 a.m. — Stoughton Sergeant Robert Kuhn testifies on his relationship with Birchmore, Farwell in the video
Stoughton Sergeant Robert Kuhn positively identified Matthew Farwell in the apartment video.
‘Best friend’ of Sandra Birchmore says she was ‘enamored’ with Farwell
10:03 a.m. — Sandra Birchmore’s best friend, Lesley Davis, testified on friendship
Lesley Davis, 30, of Attleboro, took the stand to testify on how she viewed her childhood best friend’s “relationship” with Matthew Farwell.
Davis said she was one year older than Birchmore and that the two were “best friends” who met in Davis’s last year of middle school, through a program at a Stoughton gym where the girls could babysit children to earn a free gym membership.
Despite attending different high schools, the two “spent a lot of time together” to get ice cream, go on walks or hikes at the Blue Hills Reservation, or hang out at any of Birchmore’s homes over the years, Davis said. They texted each other daily and called at least once a week. Davis described Birchmore as a “bubbly people person” and said she appreciated that Birchmore was always happy to reach out first.
10:10 a.m. — Davis and Birchmore talked through their sexual relationships
Davis and Birchmore would talk about everything in their lives together, including their sexual relationships, Davis testified.
Davis said Birchmore told her “almost immediately” about meeting Farwell when she was 15. Davis knew the two had met in the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers program and said Birchmore viewed the officers in that program as “role models.”
Birchmore told Davis that she and Farwell would have sex inside his cruiser and in his personal truck, that their sex could be “rough” with “consensual choking,” Davis testified.
10:28 a.m. — Davis disapproves of Farwell’s relationship with Birchmore
Davis also knew Birchmore and Farwell communicated over Facebook and said he would help her with her homework. He “gave a lot of attention to her,” Davis said, and always wanted to know where she was.
“She was very enamored with Matthew Farwell,” Davis told the courtroom. “She thought about him a lot and also wanted to have his child,” Davis said.
Davis said she didn’t like Farwell and Birchmore’s relationship because she knew Farwell was over 10 years older and “thought there could have been a better choice” for Birchmore, but did not want to ruin their friendship by convincing Birchmore to end the relationship or tell an adult. She eventually told her mother, but nobody else, Davis said.
Davis said she knew about an incident that had happened between Birchmore and Farwell right before she died, where he shoved her to the ground knowing she was pregnant. This is what propelled her to go to Canton Police with her family, after she found out Birchmore was dead, and attempt to let them know her concerns.
Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara takes the stand to identify Farwell in video
12:08 p.m. — Chief identifies Farwell in the apartment video
Farwell was again identified by a member of the Stoughton Police Department as the man in the video shown to the jury Tuesday, which depicts a man in a mask and hood entering the foyer of Sandra Birchmore’s apartment complex in Canton.
McNamara said she knows it is him based on the fact she’d worked with him “for 10 years” and his “specific walk,” though she too noted the COVID mask was unusual for him to be wearing.
Before identifying Farwell, McNamara testified on the required work hours for the department and said in 2021, there were a total of 60 sworn officers.
12:16 p.m. — Police chief questioned on pepper spray in Explorers and program disbandment
During cross examination, McNamara testified the Explorers program that Birchmore was a part of was completely disbanded in 2022.
However, she was asked if children in the program had been pepper-sprayed, to which she replied she would “not approve” of such conduct if it did happen, but confirmed adult police cadets do go through pepper spray training.
12:19 p.m. — Chief discusses knowing Birchmore and denied firearm license
McNamara testified Birchmore had indeed reached out to her “a couple of times,” including in 2018 when Birchmore asked about getting a license to carry a firearm. Daley tried to ask a question that began with, “The complication was a suicide notation —” to which the prosecution objected.
“Did you assist her in getting a license to carry?” Daley rephrased.
“No, I did not,” McNamara answered.
State police digital forensic analyst dons gloves to view cellphone data
12:42 p.m. — Massachusetts State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino, digital forensic analyst, gloves up
Gloves were donned by State Police digital forensic analyst Nicholas Guarino, who was the trooper to go through cellphones involved in this case — including those belonging to Farwell and Birchmore.
Guarino testified he’d gone through five devices total in connection to the case and that he’d asked troopers at the scene to search for physical copies of passwords in Birchmore’s apartment.
2:11 p.m. — Trooper discusses an ‘immense number’ of texts gone through
After returning from lunch, Trooper Guarino again took the stand to testify on evidence found in both Birchmore and Farwell’s devices. This included laptops and cellphones — specifically, Birchmore’s MacBook and iPhone 12.
Detectives were able to view an “immense number of text messages” between Farwell and Birchmore on her laptop. The investigators had to use the physical laptop to read the synced messages instead of reports derived from the cellphones due to the sheer quantity of communications between them, which were making the trooper’s work computers “crash,” Guarino said.
2:35 p.m. — Trooper says data was ‘deleted’ from February 2021 search of Birchmore laptop
Guarino testified that data from an initial search in February 2021 of Birchmore’s MacBook computer was “deleted,” because her death had been ruled a suicide at the time — so there was “no reason to fill extra space” on the state police system servers with that data.
There was a second search of her MacBook conducted in December 2021, which Guarino testified would have yielded the “same” data on messages between Birchmore and Farwell despite the lapse in time.
Stoughton internal affairs investigation
3:29 p.m. — Former Stoughton deputy chief says Farwell taught ‘firearms’ classes at Explorers that Birchmore was in
Holmes said that in October 2012, Farwell was on the sheet to teach a firearms-related class for the Explorers police program.
Birchmore was in that class, the syllabus sheet showed, while Holmes himself would have been on the schedule to teach CPR. Holmes explained there would have been up to 20 children in one class and they engaged in activities like learning defensive tactics, about criminal and juvenile law, exposure to firearms, CPR and wore a uniform.
3:37 p.m. — Stoughton internal affairs investigation into Birchmore, Farwell relationship
Holmes testified the internal affairs investigation into the nature of Farwell and Birchmore’s relationship began in 2021, before the release of its results that implicated officers Matthew Farwell, William Farwell and Robert Devine.
Matthew Farwell’s work phone was part of that investigation. Holmes testified that if he had prior knowledge of the relationship he had with Birchmore, he would have gone to have a conversation with the chief and believes there would have been an investigation.
3:48 p.m. — January 2021 call reporting the relationship
A call came in to the Stoughton Police Department on Jan. 20, 2021, from a person whom Holmes described as a “young woman” and prosecutors have previously called a friend of Birchmore’s. Holmes said that call, to date, no longer exists because the call was made on the business line and it was therefore “automatically purged.”
4:02 p.m. — Testimony concludes for the day.






