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BOSTON — The Bristol County District Attorney’s office argued before the state appeals court on Wednesday, asking it to overturn a lower court ruling in order to prosecute a case against a former city employee and police officer, who was charged in 2023 with theft of city property.
The prosecution of Stephen Greany, 56, remains in doubt after a New Bedford judge ruled last year that now-recently retired Police Chief Paul Oliveira and two detectives improperly searched the former narcotics officer’s house.
A special prosecutor appointed by the Bristol DA’s office, Kevin Connelly, asked the three-justice panel to rule that a lower court judge erred when she allowed the suppression of evidence in the case. He also argued that Greany’s consent to the search was voluntary.
Greany’s attorney, Benjamin Brooks, maintained that Greany’s consent to police to search his property was not given voluntarily, stating the officers and Oliveira used coercion and intimidation.
Each had 15 minutes to present an oral argument to the justices, who asked questions throughout. The discussion was technical and regarded the proper interpretation and application of law. But like the district court filings, it touched upon, albeit briefly, Oliveira and Greany’s past as former colleagues.
Greany and Oliveira had worked together many years earlier: both were employed by NBPD in the 1990s, and both did stints in the narcotics division. It’s this overlap, Brooks argued to the justices, and Oliveira’s position at the time as chief that made any power imbalance more pronounced when Greany was asked to consent to a search.
“It’s an unusual circumstance,” Brooks said of Oliveira’s involvement, after Wednesday’s hearing was over.
In 2023, while employed as a maintenance worker for the city, Greany was charged with stealing city property. Detectives retrieved a gaming console, fire alarms, and light switches that police say belonged to the city, as well as drugs and firearm ammunition. Greany was fired and charged with four felonies, including drug and theft charges.
This is not Greany’s first brush with the law. He was arrested in 1999 for disclosing the identity of an undercover officer to a drug dealer in exchange for $3,500. He pleaded guilty and served at least eight years in federal prison until his release in 2009.
Oliveira led the 2023 investigation, which ended with a search of Greany’s home and a safe.
In January 2024, District Court Judge Sabine Coyne determined that the information New Bedford police used to search Greany and his property was lacking in detail: “Chief Oliveira (who did not testify) called these officers stating [the] defendant was suspected of stealing city property. The time frame and specifics … relied entirely on totem pole hearsay.” (A term in Massachusetts case law, “totem pole hearsay” means hearsay within hearsay.)
Coyne also ruled Greany’s consent for police to search his property was not voluntary, “since the NBPD used the threat of seeking a search warrant if the defendant did not give consent.”
In court last year, John Seed, Greany’s attorney, suggested something was amiss, given the chief’s involvement in what could be seen as a minor theft case. “It was personal,” Seed told The Light in September. “My client was a former police officer a long time ago … read between the lines.” Oliveira declined comment at the time.
A city spokesperson had said the situation was unusual, given Greany’s employment with the city, and thus warranted the involvement of department heads, including the police chief.
The city rehired Greany in 2019, a decade after he left federal prison, as a parks maintenance worker. The mayor’s office had said the mayor did not learn of Greany’s background until the police department began investigating him for thefts of city property.
Greany’s charges in New Bedford District Court have been in limbo pending the appeal by the DA’s office, filed in early 2024.
The next hearing for his criminal case is set for June in New Bedford District Court. Brooks said it is unlikely the appeals court will issue its ruling by then.
Some of the charges carry a maximum sentence of 2½ years in jail. If the appeals court preserves Judge Coyne’s ruling, it is likely Greany’s case will be dismissed, as the commonwealth will not have enough evidence to prosecute.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
If a police officer says,” you can let us search voluntarily or we can get a warrant,” is not intimidation. If it was me I’d say, ” get the warrant.”
Why was this individual rehired by the City of New Bedford, after his conviction on selling the name of an undercover NBPD officer for $3,500 to a narcotics dealer? He should have been charged with the attempted murder of this undercover NBPD officer.
The City of New Bedford needs an immediate review of their background checks for job applicants, both State and Federal, and probably just ask members of the NBPD and local citizens.
No pension should be given to this individual.