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Man arrested for traffic incident charges cop was out of control and city knew it

A man who spent a night in lockup after an incident involving a police detective outside Symphony Hall is suing both the detective and the city, which he says had known for years the cop had issues but failed to address them.

In his lawsuit, filed last week in US District Court in Boston, Sean Anderson charges he had just pulled over to let an ambulance go by on Mass. Ave. on the afternoon of Dec. 21, 2012, when he heard a loud bang from his trunk and saw what he thought was a security guard in a fluorescent green vest going around his car in the rear:

Mr. Anderson lowered his window and asked, “Did you just hit my car?”

The man said he did.

In response, Mr. Anderson said, “What the fuck?”

The man suddenly lunged towards Mr. Anderson, screaming, “What the fuck? Fuck you! I’ll tell you what the fuck!” He then reached into the car, grabbed the keys, and yelled for Mr. Anderson to get out of the car.

The man opened Mr. Anderson’s car door, put his hands around the neck, then grabbed Mr. Anderson by his clothes and pulled him out of the car.

Anderson says he told them man he didn't know was a cop and that in response, Wright pulled up his vest and showed his BPD badge, clipped to his belt underneath.

He says he was so scared by Lysander Wright's behavior he didn't fully believe he was a cop and jumped back in the car, locked the doors and called 911 - only to be dragged out again by the throat by Wright, who had earlier reached in and grabbed the car's keys. He alleges that Wright told arriving officers - who included then-Deputy Superintendent William Evans - two completely different stories about what had happened.

Anderson says Wright has a history of complaints going back years that the department failed to do anything about - including beating his own daughter with a bottle in 2003 and being arrested in a prostitution sting in Lynn last year.

Anderson is seeking unspecified damages and penalties.

Neighborhoods: 
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PDF icon Anderson complaint126.26 KB


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Comments

One months paid leave and a promotion!

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All cops should be required to wear a lapel camera on their person. Its not fair to ask the tax payers to pay for these thug cops mistakes. Also maybe if they are required to wear the camera we can avoid these abuse of power situations altogether.

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Everyone thinks cameras on cops is the answer, until they combine them with facial recognition software, and "Do you have an ID" is out the window. They WILL abuse any technology they get, they always have. It will be a simple matter of scanning a group with your wonderful lapel camera and within seconds have names and records of everyone in the group. No thank you. People with cameras, not government.

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They're welcome to figure out who I am as long as they aren't beating me with a baton while they do it.

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i do not fully believe nor trust mr andersons side of the story

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I do, I believe every word of it. There are some psychos out there hiding behind the badge. If you say "fuck you" to a cop (even though you have no reason to think he is a cop) you're going to have a bad time.

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Your anonymous grammar-free argument was so convincing that it has completely swayed my opinion.

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Why is this f$@# still a f$!&&# cop? With lawsuits like this pending, and scumbags like this to root out, no wonder Evans is too busy for City Council hearings!

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So much for those city/state employee domestic violence clauses huh?

Must be nice to be above the law. It will only get worse before it gets better. Too many bullies in badges and too many comfortable armchair COs that enable if not encourage this behavior so as to further the divide between cops n civilians (news flash: cops are civvies too, much to their chagrin) they are professional liars. As has been documented time n time agsin. Thats the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed. Nobody is safe from a slighted cop. Not grandma,not fido, let alone a minority person. If you got.nothing to hide coppers youll wear the camera vests. But this is the same dept that didnt want GPS in their vehicles either. I wonder why.

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Police are civilians but have every little carve out and exception to the law including after retirement.

This is granting special privileges and almost a title of nobility and shouldn't be allowed. Cops should be bound to the same laws and standards as those they enforce the laws upon.

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Cops need to be held to an even higher standard precisely because they are the ones we entrust to enforce the law. When cops do wrong they violate that trust. The worst wrong they can do is to stick up for other cops that do wrong instead of ostracizing them.

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Hard to feel safe out there knowing that scum like this Lysander Wright are allowed to wear a badge. Wonder if I'll hear back from Walsh's office.
Of course, as stated above this is a budget issue as well as a public safety issue...surprised we never hear from Sam Tyler about criminal cops and the expensive lawsuits they engender.

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Does anyone know if this criminal cop is still on the force?

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which hurts in the wallet without salary doubling traffic details and overtime. Check with union reps for status.

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According to the Herald records, he was as of 2013 and made a cool $110K.

http://bh.heraldinteractive.com/projects/your_tax_dollars.bg?src=Boston2...

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Is the Mayor's hotline, for those who wish to express displeasure that this guy still has a badge and a gun.

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Hey, sounds like last year when a Statie ticketed me for passing in a no passing zone while I was biking on the Harvard Bridge and (gasp) left the bike lane and then threatened to arrest me for asking him for his name, as his nameplate was covered by a reflective vest.

Went to court, and the ticket was dismissed.

Lesson 1: record the incident if possible. Perfectly legal (and the cops know it, and don't like it). If I had recorded it and gotten arrested (for standing on the grassy area between the bike path and Memorial Drive), I'd probably have a nice civil suit on my hands, too.

Lesson 2: There are some bad cops out there who like to go on power trips and think they are above the law.

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Buy a helmet/hat cam for biking and your problem is solved.

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That really got my curiosity. So you were in the bike lane, went out of the bike lane and the cop ticketed you? I know that the bike lanes have solid lines. Do the lines represent no passing lines as with cars? I never thought of the lines that way. I figured they were just to let drivers and bikers know where to expect bikes.

Did the judge give an explanation for dismissing the ticket? Also did the ticket identify the cop? I don't drive and so have not been ticketed for driving a car but still would like to know what to expect if I am ever ticketed on a bike.

For what it is worth from listening to other LEOs I am under the impression that Mass state cops are notorious for arrogance.

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a regular around Symphony Hall?

A while back, one of my friends was trying to cross the street with the pedestrian light, and the cop handling traffic management grabbed my friend the chest and told my friend to ignore the lights because HE (cop) was in charge of telling people where to go.

I also recall a group of motorcycle cops outside of Symphony Hall screaming profanities at a group of motorists waiting for the light to turn green on Mass Ave at Huntington, because the cops wanted to pass through. There was nowhere for the motorists to go without moving into oncoming traffic or crashing into the T headhouse. Once the cops got through, they pulled up on the sidewalk to bullshit with each other.

It's not like the Symphony attracts a rough crowd, either....

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I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about. Motorcycle cop, one of a pair of black guys in late milddle age by the look of them, who will camp out in the bus stop at Mass Ave and Newbury Street, pulling over people who've made the illegal left from Boylston St eastbound to Mass Ave going toward Cambridge.. They're often there on weekend afternoons, and they manage to squeeze an awful lot of swearing and yelling and threatening of arrest for bullshit charges (my favourite: telling a guy if they ever caught him again and his car still had a messy back seat, they'd lock him up. The driver hardly said a word during the whole encounter, so he wasn't provoking them).

They will also flip out at MBTA bus drivers for wanting to use the bus stop. Which amuses me because, really, what's two more screaming psychos on an MBTA bus?

Whenever we see them, my girlfriend moves me on to a different bus stop because some day I will lose it with their puerile bullshit and say something illegal like "quit making up laws. Write the guy a ticket and cut him loose, you fuckers," and end up shot to death for my trouble. When that happens, I hope you'll all remember me fondly. Or at all.

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Police supervisors and good, honest officers need to stop defending these kinds of cops. When the police bully law-biding citizens, they lose the support and trust of the community, which in turn makes doing their jobs a whole lot harder.

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upstanding officer needs a job companion to help erase his alleged bad behavior. Perhaps a horse. Councillor Murphy can you help?

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.

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he might pull a Mongo.

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Boston PD arrest gun carrying thug at BMC before he can commit a crime.. zero comments.

Boston PD alert citizens as to high number of shootings last weekend thoughout city.. zero comments.

Boston Officer is accused of harassment during traffic stop which NONE of us witnessed.. 40 comments and direction to the mayor's hotline.

As the relative of an officer, it's absolutely no wonder they are so disillusioned. You people hate them for what you THINK they represent. In this circumstance, remember, we WERE NOT THERE.

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who witnessed the alleged bottle smash or the knife to the throat episodes. The complaint referenced 17 instances of people making stuff up. Yeah that's it I was not there. One badge can tarnish many.

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You're absolutely right. One badge can. And one accountant can defraud a taxholder and tarnish many. One CEO can commit fraud, and tarnish many.

Someone, in any profession, can do something criminally, but the bottom line is this: The outcry isn't there as it is for a police officer. These men and women deal with the worst humanity has to offer daily. When something positive occurs involving them, no one cares. Adam NEVER reports on anything encouraging involving the BPD. I don't blame them for being disillusioned, I'm thankful for their service and, because of entitled individuals, I would never want their job.

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who this cop beat with a BOTTLE?

Come on. Boohooing about a guy like this under the cloak of "you guys just hate cops" is beyond ridiculous and you know it. Any cop worth his salt--and thanks, but we know that there are plenty of them and if you read this site ever you'd see plenty of comments on good police work--knows that a guy like this is a bad apple and should be tossed out on his ear.

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I completely agree! He should be sanctioned if the allegations are true.

Were you this outraged at the amount of gang violence that occurred this weekend? What really troubles me, more than one instance of police misconduct that supposedly occurred two years ago, is that NO ONE cares. Why was there one comment on the BPD alerting us about a homicide that occurred in E-18? Zero comments on how they stopped a gang shootout at BMC just two days ago? It baffles my mind.

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Seriously. You don't really understand how news works. If everyone on here lined up every time Adam posted a notice about another guy in Boston being shot and said "oh my--that is terrible. I am outraged" we'd never have time for anything else. It happens every day--just read UHub. And as nice as it would be if the BPD got a round of applause every time something bad DOESN'T happen, that's not how it works. I don't call the Globe every time I narrowly miss being hit by a car or someone doesn't mug me on the way home. It's not news. Get it?

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I get it. You're completely comfortable with people being shot. Or at least don't "have time for it".

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shouldn't you be commenting over on one of the multiple posts about shootings, expressing your anonymous wit, wisdom and concern?

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"Man bites dog," is always a more interesting news story than "dog bites man."

When a police officer (someone in whom we have placed our trust, to whom we have given considerable authority, and whose salary we pay) turns out to be a criminal, that's a lot more shocking / outrageous / newsworthy than when a criminal gang member turns out to be a criminal and shoots someone.

It's also the case that "police officer shows up at work; does his job well; goes home" is not particularly surprising or noteworthy -- it happens a lot, every day. There's not really anything to discuss.

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We expect criminals to commit crimes. When the people that are paid (quite nicely) to prevent crimes are the ones committing them, it's a story that deserves attention.

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*Some* police have forgotten they are civil servents who chose to be in the profession they are in. *Some* of them have a holier than thou, I can do whatever I want to whomever I want. If you are going to argue this then you are blinded by the fact that you have a relative that is a cop.

That being said they see and deal with the worst every single day and I wouldn't want that job in a million years. It is a hard job. But that is why I chose not to become a civil servant.

Cops are humans which means there are going ot be some real dirt bags wearing the badge. But when ALL cops and their relatives start spouting about the "blue line" that is where you lose my respect. As a cop if you know another cop is a douche bag in general or doing illegal things or using his/her power in all the wrongs ways then you as a citizen and police office need to cross that blue line that they all hold so dear and report it.

They should all wear cameras. A lot of the bs that happens would stop.

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You really think this guy is above the law? I'm sure they'll slap him on *both* wrists this time.

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Innocent, etc.

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