The Boston Police officer who reportedly violated department rules in a high-speed chase that killed three teenagers driving a suspected stolen car has resigned, raising “serious questions about transparency and favoritism inside BPD,” an attorney says.
Officer Triston Champagnie submitted his resignation from the department on July 28, with “charges pending,” according to a police commissioner’s personnel order, dated Wednesday, that the Herald has obtained.
A BPD spokesperson has told the Herald that the “charges pending” relate to an “open investigation” that the department’s Internal Affairs Division is conducting into Champagnie misconduct allegations.
The officer, who graduated from the Police Academy in November 2022 and earned a total of $111,387.05 in pay last year, had been on paid administrative leave from the department before resigning.
The department has not immediately responded to Herald inquiries seeking Champagnie’s resignation letter, if there is one, and the status of the internal affairs investigation.
In late June, Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden dropped firearms charges against a Dorchester man that stemmed from a June 2023 traffic stop, with Champagnie involved as the arresting officer.
The dismissal of the Joe Simmons Jr. case came after the defendant’s attorney, Zachary Cloud, said the BPD had concluded its more than year-long internal affairs investigation into Champagnie’s role in the January 2024 fatal high-speed pursuit that killed three teenagers on Dorchester’s Morrissey Boulevard.
In a nolle prosequi filed in Suffolk Superior Court, on June 24, Assistant District Attorney Danielle Madden stated a “necessary and essential witness” in the Simmons case was “unavailable and likely to remain unavailable.”
“Based on that witness’s unavailability,” Madden stated, “the Commonwealth cannot meet its burden to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The BPD declined a Herald request for records from the investigation into Champagnie’s misconduct allegations, citing how it remained “ongoing” and was “pending a discipline hearing.”
“Disclosure of any responsive records would harm the disciplinary hearing of the Department,” a spokesperson stated in the denial.
The BPD’s Bureau of Professional Standards found Champagnie had violated six department rules during the fatal high-speed pursuit, including one that requires officers to be truthful in their reports, Cloud wrote in a court motion in June.
Per the Boston Globe, Champagnie, sitting in the passenger seat, and Officer Matthew Farley, the driver, continued to pursue a suspected stolen vehicle at a high speed despite Champagnie’s acknowledgment of a supervisor’s command to “terminate.”
Three teenagers in the car, which reached speeds of 106 mph, died after they crashed, while a fourth occupant survived. A pistol was found inside
The DA’s office did not press criminal charges against Champagnie and Farley.
Champagnie faced a slew of other misconduct complaints, one stemming from a June 2023 incident, just days before Simmons’ arrest, with the officer “improperly handling a firearm,” causing it to discharge and damage property.
Champagnie’s father, Patrick Champagnie, holds a high-ranking position in the department as a sergeant detective, earning $368,222.47 last year, according to city payroll records.
One brother, also named Patrick, is also on the job, collecting $231,979.64 in 2024. Another brother, Preston, made $70,560.16 from the BPD last year.
“This resignation raises serious questions about transparency and favoritism inside BPD,” Cloud told the Herald on Thursday, “because it seems as if Commissioner (Michael) Cox delayed issuing any final punishment for months, allowing Triston Champagnie to leave on his own terms.”
“It’s hard to imagine that would have happened if Champagnie’s father weren’t a high-ranking officer and friend of the Commissioner,” the attorney added. “There’s no way a regular officer in the same situation would have been given this benefit … which ultimately contributed to the senseless deaths of three teenagers.”
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