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FALL RIVER — A major New Bedford drug trafficking case has been dismissed after state prosecutors determined the investigation was tainted by a sexual relationship between a now-retired city police officer and a woman he used as an informant.
The defense had presented evidence of misconduct by New Bedford detective Jared Lucas with Carly Medeiros, who was also in a relationship with the defendant, Steven Ortiz, court records state.
Ortiz was charged with trafficking heroin and conspiracy to violate drug laws in 2017. His attorney, Rosemary Scapicchio, filed a motion to dismiss his charges last year due to “egregious misconduct,” citing Medeiros’ role in the police investigation and her relationship with Lucas.
The Bristol County District Attorney’s office on Friday agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the case is permanently closed and the commonwealth cannot retry it.
“It is my determination that I cannot in good faith go forward and suggest the government could cut out Carly Medeiros’ involvement and Jared Lucas’ involvement, and that the case would stand on its own merits,” said Assistant District Attorney Patrick Driscoll in Superior Court Friday morning. “It taints the entire investigation.”
The case involved charges against three other co-defendants, which are now all dismissed.
The Boston Globe first reported on Lucas’ misconduct, and described a “tawdry love triangle” between Lucas as detective, Medeiros as informant, and Ortiz as alleged drug dealer.
Last August, the first witness, a state police sergeant, testified. Driscoll said he reviewed this testimony, and that it informed his decision that the case cannot move forward.
“I don’t know what took them eight months to see it,” Scapicchio told The Light. “At a minimum, the DA should be pulling every single case that Jared Lucas was involved in and looking at it to make sure the defendant hasn’t been charged or convicted.”
Last June, Superior Court Judge Renee Dupuis dismissed the 2019 drug case of Miguel Martinez after allowing a motion to suppress the evidence obtained by New Bedford police through a search warrant, in which Lucas and Medeiros were also involved. She ruled that Lucas’ “gross misconduct” with his informant had tainted the search warrant.
She ordered the Bristol County DA’s office to hand over all criminal cases it prosecuted that relied on information provided by Medeiros. Then, the DA’s office told The Light that a “very short list was filed with the court, but the judge sealed it.”
Other witnesses, including several active New Bedford police officers, were called to testify during hearings for the Ortiz case, but the proceedings were repeatedly rescheduled. Now, they will not be called as the case has been dismissed.
“I subpoenaed eight officers to prove a pattern of misconduct by the police department using a drug-addicted woman for their disposal,” Scapicchio said in court. She told the judge a current New Bedford narcotics detective perjured himself regarding Medeiros, and that she was prepared to prove it had the case not been dismissed.
Scapicchio also said she identified two other women that New Bedford police officers had sex with in exchange for avoiding criminal charges, she told The Light.
“What I think is the problem in this police department is that they’re engaging in sexual contact with drug-addicted women and using whatever these women tell them as some evidence to further their investigations,” she said, adding that it’s a problematic pattern that the state should be looking into.
Dupuis allowed the motion to dismiss, and agreed it was the appropriate decision.
The Ortiz dismissal comes on the heels of a multi-part series by the Globe, “Snitch City,” which investigated the way New Bedford detectives — both former and current — abused the confidential informant system. The series traced this to when Chief Paul Oliveira worked as a detective in narcotics decades ago.
The department’s narcotics and internal affairs unit (which investigates police misconduct) is currently being reviewed by 21CP, a consulting firm.
Oliveira in an email statement said “it’s unfortunate” that Lucas’ “gross misconduct compromised this case.”
“I am incredibly disappointed in Lucas’s behavior, and I sympathize with all of the other law enforcement officers involved with this investigation whose hard work was negatively impacted by it,” he said.
In response to a question about the allegation that an active detective perjured himself as it relates to the informant misconduct, and whether it is a terminable offense, Oliveira said the evidence should be provided to the department’s internal affairs unit or brought to the attention of the district attorney. (Scapicchio made the DA’s office aware of it through her remarks in court on Friday.)
“The District Attorney’s decision to dismiss the case was appropriate,” said Mayor Jon Mitchell in an email. “The conduct of the former officer in question was outrageous, and it tainted the case beyond redemption.”
The Bristol County District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment or questions, including whether the office is looking into Scapicchio’s claim that a New Bedford narcotics detective perjured himself.
Under law, prosecutors are required to disclose documented problems with officer credibility to defendants (commonly known as a Brady disclosure).
Ortiz declined comment, but he and his co-defendants were smiling as they boarded the elevator to leave the courthouse.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
Editor’s note: This story was modified on April 11, 2025, to add comment from Police Chief Paul Oliveira and Mayor Jon Mitchell.
Yesterday’s Globe article on this case shows the details of the perjury, shows that the two women who NBPD coerced and sexually exploited are named, and that Oliveira possibly ignored his supoena for this case.
No it doesn’t show the 2 women I am one of the women and I wasn’t in any of the pictures from court the women u see with them is another women who got charged
More inappropriate behavior by an officer of the NBPD.
It is beyond time to purge those individuals from the NBPD that betray their oath of service and not give “paid administrative leave” aka disguised paid vacation time to them.
This inappropriate behavior leads citizens to question the integrity of all officers of the NBPD, which is unfair to those members who risk their lives daily for our safety and security.