SPRINGFIELD — City Police Officer Gregg Bigda is once again off the city’s payroll after the state Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission upheld his decertification in a decision released late Monday.
The commission — most commonly known as POST — was created by the state as a watchdog to decide whether law enforcement officers can remain on their respective forces in the face of allegations of wrongdoing.
Bigda, 54, a 30-year veteran of the city’s police force and once an oft-admired narcotics detective, has been under fire since he threatened to brutalize two Latino boys who stole an undercover car in 2016. He faced federal prosecution for his actions but was acquitted by a jury in 2021. He has bounced on and off the payroll, on paid and unpaid leave, as a result.
In mid-2023, POST Executive Director Enrique Zuniga issued a decision indicating he thought Bigda should be decertified, meaning Bigda could never hold a law enforcement job again. A lawyer for Bigda challenged that decision and a series of hearings ensued.
“The evidence at the hearing included the testimony of thirteen witnesses, hundreds of pages of written reports and records, and one video recording. The hearing concluded on October 30, 2023,” Monday’s decision reads.
“Officer Bigda’s East Longmeadow offenses and his recent OUI and negligent driving offenses were less severe than his Palmer Police Station offenses. Taken together, however, they demonstrate a lack of fitness for employment in law enforcement,” the decision obtained by The Republican reads.
The incidents to which investigators were referring were old domestic incidents between him and a former girlfriend in 2016; an OUI arrest after he drove home from the Big E to his home in Palmer in October; and a bombastic arrest that was caught on video in the Palmer police station lock-up, also in 2016. During that arrest, Bigda was shown threatening the boys with death, injury and bogus drug charges.
Bigda also was accused of kicking one of the boys before they were brought to the Palmer police station, in the town where a high-speed chase to retrieve the police car ended. Bigda was tried in U.S. District Court on both of those allegations, however, and a jury cleared him.
Bigda was placed back on the payroll after his acquittals, but Springfield Police Superintendent Cheryl C. Clapprood and other city officials have refused to welcome him back to the police station. He has been paid approximately $500,000 in back pay, according to city officials. Bigda has not worked as a police officer since
The Commission’s initial findings are subject to an appeal, according to Bigda’s attorney Donald Keaveny Jr.
“We most certainly intend to appeal,” Keaveny said during a brief phone interview early Monday evening.
Bigda is entitled to another appeal to the POST Commission before having the option to appeal to a Superior Court judge.
Clapprood, who testified against Bigda during the POST hearings, said she yanked Bigda off the city payroll as soon as she got word of the commission’s decision.
“If he’s not certified, he’s unpaid. I can’t use him,” Clapprood said.
