Former Stoughton officer who allegedly groomed Sandra Birchmore decertified by watchdog

William Farwell, the twin brother of accused killer Matthew Farwell, voluntary agreed to a revocation of his law enforcement certification.

One of the former Stoughton police officers who allegedly groomed Sandra Birchmore was decertified by the state watchdog group Tuesday.

William Farwell, a former Stoughton police officer and twin brother of Matthew Farwell, voluntarily agreed to a permanent suspension of his certification as a law enforcement officer with the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, also known as the POST Commission.

William Farwell, Matthew Farwell, and their supervisor Robert Devine all had inappropriate relations with Birchmore, a Stoughton police internal affairs investigation found in 2022.

All three officers are named as defendants in a wrongful death suit filed by Birchmore’s estate, alleging that each officer groomed Birchmore, initially through a youth explorers program with the department that Birchmore joined at age 13.

William Farwell allegedly had “multiple inappropriate physical encounters” with Birchmore and exchanged explicit messages and photographs with her, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara said at the time.

“The evidence suggests that William Farwell also, at the very least, attempted to introduce Miss Birchmore to other men,” she said.

William Farwell admitted in 2021 to having a sexual relationship with Birchmore, who told him about her pregnancy with Matthew Farwell as the father, according to a State Police report obtained by The Boston Globe.

William resigned in August of 2022 from the department before the results of the internal investigation were released.

Devine, who also resigned, has not been decertified by the POST Commission, but the former officer appeared at an adjudicatory proceeding earlier this month over Zoom. William Farwell’s adjudicatory proceeding took place on Aug. 6.

Farwell’s twin brother charged with killing Birchmore

In 2021, 23-year-old Birchmore, who was pregnant, was found dead in her Canton apartment. The state examiner ruled her death a suicide, but Stoughton police’s internal investigation raised further questions.

Then, in June, a high-profile forensic pathologist hired by her family determined that her death was a homicide. In August, Matthew Farwell, the last person to see her alive and the reported father of her unborn child, was indicted on federal charges.

Matthew Farwell is accused of killing Birchmore in her apartment and staging it to appear as if she killed herself, prosecutors said last month.

According to an FBI affidavit and the internal affairs investigation, Matthew Farwell had sex when he was 27 with then-15-year-old Birchmore. Their sexual relationship continued until her death, with text messages documenting that he would meet up with her for sex in police cars during his shift.

Matthew Farwell was voluntarily decertified in March by the POST Commission due to the allegations including statutory rape and lying to law enforcement during the investigation into Birchmore’s death.