Attorneys for Matthew Farwell, the former Stoughton police detective accused of killing Sandra Birchmore, are again asking that his federal trial be moved out of Massachusetts.
“The volume and tenor of local publicity create a reasonable likelihood that substantial pretrial news coverage has and will continue to prevent a fair trial” in Massachusetts, Farwell attorney Kimberly C. Stevens wrote in a motion filed Monday in US District Court in Boston.
Farwell is charged with killing a pregnant Birchmore, 23, in 2021 and then staging her death to look like a suicide to prevent her from disclosing how he groomed and sexually abused her as a child. Farwell’s defense team maintains that Birchmore killed herself.
Farwell has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Jury selection in Farwell’s trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Boston.
In its request, the defense acknowledged that US District Court Chief Judge Denise J. Casper rejected the idea in January.
Since then, however, coverage by the Boston Globe and internet commentary on Globe stories and Boston Herald coverage has intensified bias against Farwell among the potential jury pool, his lawyers contend.
The Globe has published 33 stories and commentary since January on the Farwell case, and the 867 comments on those stories “assume Mr. Farwell’s guilt and call for his punishment — all without the need for a jury trial,” Stevens wrote.
“The reporting on this case has fostered — and continues to foster — widespread public belief that Mr. Farwell is guilty of multiple crimes, including abusing a law enforcement position of trust, of ‘grooming’ Ms. Birchmore and having sex with her while she was a minor, and killing her and ‘staging’ her death as a suicide,” the defense wrote.
Farwell’s lawyers have previously asked that his trial be moved to Rhode Island, arguing that potential jurors in that state will not be exposed to coverage by the Globe and other Massachusetts news outlets.
“This coverage, and these types of comments, will continue to saturate the communities where the potential jurors reside, where their families live, and where the trial jurors will have to return post-trial,” Stevens wrote. “The totality of the coverage and its impact on the public justify presuming prejudice and granting transfer to secure Mr. Farwell’s right to a fair trial.”
According to the defense, US Attorney Leah B. Foley’s office opposes the renewed motion.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.