Somerville police detective Dante DiFronzo has been off the street for nearly a decade, yet the city payroll has never stopped listing his name. While discipline hearings, arbitration and dueling lawsuits have bounced through local and federal courts, his administrative-leave checks have kept coming. The long-running fight, tied to a 2015 machete assault linked to one of his street sources, has turned into a costly local standoff with no clear end date.
Payroll records obtained by Boston.com show DiFronzo has taken in $535,238.40 in administrative-leave pay since 2017. The city fired him in 2018, and an arbitrator ordered him reinstated in 2021 without back pay. A federal jury in October 2024 later found in his favor and awarded him $800,000, according to The Boston Globe. The city has appealed, and the case is now active in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, according to an appellate docket on Justia.
How Prosecutors Say the 2015 Attack Unfolded
Court filings say that in late February 2015 DiFronzo exchanged text messages with a street source, Jonathan Machado, and gave him an address that prosecutors say preceded a March 2, 2015 home invasion. In that attack, a man was stabbed multiple times with a machete and needed surgery. A March 2017 witness-disclosure letter from the District Attorney, filed in the federal record, said DiFronzo "knowingly made material omissions" in police reports. That Brady notice has hung over disciplinary reviews ever since, as reflected in a court memorandum posted on GovInfo.
POST Status and Certification Hurdle
The state's Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission currently lists DiFronzo as "Conditionally Certified" in its complaints database, which was updated on April 13, 2026, according to the Massachusetts POST Commission. The commission's public guidance makes clear that POST certification or recertification is required for an officer to exercise police powers, so that conditional listing stands as a formal barrier to an immediate return to patrol, according to the Massachusetts POST Commission.
City and Union Responses
City officials are pushing their appeal and argue the underlying facts cut against putting DiFronzo back on the job while the litigation crawls forward. Leonard Kesten, the attorney representing Somerville in the appeal, told Boston.com, "He was not terminated for anything having to do with his reporting corruption. The evidence is overwhelming."
The detective’s union lawyer, Joseph Padolsky, told the same outlet there is "no reason" DiFronzo should not be back at work. Former Mayor Joseph Curtatone has taken the opposite view, calling the conduct at issue dangerous and saying, "He directly assisted in a violent act that almost resulted in someone's death," as reported by The Boston Globe.
Legal Stakes: Brady Letters and Appeals
Brady disclosures, the witness-notice letters from prosecutors that flag potentially exculpatory or impeaching information, sit at the center of the dispute. Their role is laid out in the federal court record available on GovInfo. The city argues those legal developments justify pressing the appeal, a position reflected in the active appellate docket listed on Justia.
For Somerville taxpayers, the fight has already produced a six-figure tab in leave pay and legal costs, with the meter still running. The outcome of the appeal will determine whether the city ends up owing more or can block the detective’s full return. For now, DiFronzo remains on paid administrative leave while his certification status and the courts decide what comes next.
