A Boston police officer is charged with intimidating and harassing a superior officer investigating whether he had violated the department’s residency requirement for employees.
Matthew P. Morrissey, 39, was arraigned Monday in Dorchester Municipal Court on a sole felony count of intimidating a witness or official, records show. He pleaded not guilty and was released on personal recognizance.
While being investigated by the department’s Bureau of Professional Standards, Morrissey allegedly intimidated and harassed the superior officer conducting the investigation, authorities said.
“Conduct such as this will not be accepted or ignored by the Boston Police Department,” police Superintendent-in-Chief and Acting Commissioner Gregory Long said in a statement. “Our officers take an oath to uphold the law and will be held accountable to that very oath. This arrest serves as a clear reminder that the Boston Police Department holds its officers to the highest standards.”
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Boston Police Department employees must live in the city until they have worked for the agency for 10 years.
According to a police report, the investigating officer, a sergeant detective, had been looking into Morrissey’s residency since at least October. After an interview with investigators, Morrissey was placed on administrative leave Saturday.
Around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Morrissey drove to the sergeant’s home and flashed blue lights into his window from his pickup truck, according to the police report. Morrissey was parked about 10 feet from the sergeant’s front door.
“From this proximity, Morrissey remained and stared at” the sergeant, who stood behind a glass storm door, for approximately 90 seconds before driving away, the report read. “This was the third in a series of confrontations instigated by Officer Morrissey while he was under investigation for allegedly violating the city’s residency ordinance.”
Morrissey “blocked access to the house with his truck, rolled down his window and stared” at the sergeant, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden’s office said after the arraignment.
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“The actions of Officer Morrissey are troubling on many levels: he lied about where he lived, and he intimidated a fellow officer who had placed him on administrative leave,” Hayden said in a statement.
A lawyer for Morrissey, Kenneth H. Anderson, said by e-mail that “this incident was substantially overblown.” He declined to comment further.
Morrissey had a previous encounter with the sergeant in October, the report said. The sergeant had been watching Morrissey from the parking lot of a Dorchester restaurant when Morrissey’s black Chevy Silverado moved toward him, stopping about 20 feet away.
The Silverado slowly passed the sergeant, turned, and parked perpendicular to him, remaining there for about two minutes, according to the police report. Investigators later determined Morrissey had looked up the sergeant’s license plate registration on his cellphone that morning, the report said.
“It is believed that this was a counter-surveillance technique used by Morrissey to help determine the extent of the [Anti-Corruption Division] investigation,” the report read. “In fact, investigators discovered that Morrissey inappropriately queried upwards of 55 vehicle registrations registered to him, his family members, and [the Anti-Corruption Division] as counter-surveillance techniques.”
On Nov. 5, the sergeant was again surveilling Morrissey from the same parking lot, the report stated. This time, Morrissey’s Silverado pulled into the parking lot around 7:13 p.m. and “very slowly” circled the sergeant’s vehicle at least twice.
“The aforementioned incidents have caused great concern” for the sergeant and his family, the report said. “Officer Matthew Morrissey, while knowingly being investigated by superior officers assigned to the Anti-Corruption Division, deliberately attempted to harass, intimidate, and cause emotional injury” to the sergeant, “his family, and to some extent, other members” of the division.
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Morrisey’s next court date is scheduled for April 21.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.