Linda Cherty-Valentin was arrested in front of families and co-workers at her French-speaking Jamaica Plain Montessori school in May 2012, accused of trying to run down a priest and an usher with her car during a lease dispute with a local church. Thirteen years later, a Boston Municipal Court judge wiped her record clean, finding the case had been built on a lie.
Court records and internal police documents show the arrest warrant rested on false statements from Detective John McCabe, according to Boston 25 News. Boston police patrol officers had responded to the initial incident on May 6, 2012, in Jamaica Plain and left without making an arrest. McCabe stepped in eight days later and obtained an arrest warrant on May 14, 2012, charging Cherty-Valentin with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and threats to kill, claiming he had spoken directly to all the alleged victims and reporting that the priest feared she might attack him.
That claim did not hold up. During a 2015 civil deposition, McCabe admitted under oath that he had never spoken to the parish priest before filing his sworn report, and that he interviewed the church usher — a retired Boston judge — in the usher's living room instead, according to the same investigation. He also did not ask whether video footage existed, whether a secretary may have witnessed the incident, or whether any other witness was present.
Charges Dismissed, But Damage Already Done
The criminal charges against Cherty-Valentin were ultimately dismissed with prejudice, meaning they could never be refiled. But the arrest had already taken its toll: enrollment at her school fell from 90 students to just 19, a decline of nearly 79 percent, per Boston 25 News. Cherty-Valentin has said the arrest damaged her reputation and her livelihood, and has said plainly that a detective lied to obtain a warrant for her arrest.
Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 276, Section 100K, a state court may order a criminal record expunged only upon clear and convincing evidence of specific statutory grounds, including demonstrable errors by law enforcement or demonstrable fraud perpetrated upon the court, according to the Massachusetts General Laws. In February 2025, a Boston Municipal Court judge expunged Cherty-Valentin's case specifically on the grounds of demonstrable fraud upon the court arising from a false statement. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court precedent holds that proving fraud upon the court requires demonstrating an unconscionable plan or scheme designed to improperly influence a judicial decision, according to FindLaw's summary of Massachusetts case law.
A Complaint That Sat Idle for Years
Cherty-Valentin filed an internal affairs complaint against McCabe in 2016, but the case remained inactive before McCabe retired from the Boston Police Department in 2021. That same year, a Boston police deputy superintendent signed a report accusing McCabe of being untruthful — a finding discussed in Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 6E and state police training guidelines, according to state law and MPI Training materials used to instruct Massachusetts internal investigators.
That untruthfulness finding did not survive. In August 2025, Boston Police Department leadership finalized the internal affairs case and downgraded the finding from untruthfulness to neglect of duty. Commissioner Michael Cox signed off on an amendment request stating that McCabe's actions did not rise to the level of willful misrepresentation required to sustain a finding of untruthfulness. The Boston Police Department has defended the decision to amend the internal finding, maintaining, per the department, that there is no finding on a case until the commissioner signs off on it.
Why the Downgrade Matters
The distinction between the two findings matters in this case because the department changed its internal finding from untruthfulness to neglect of duty.
Larry Smith, who leads the Stirm Group, has questioned why the department altered an internal finding years after the officer's departure. Cherty-Valentin has called for an independent audit into how internal affairs findings are altered behind closed doors. Boston 25 News reported it was unable to locate current public-records contact information for the retired detective.
Part of a Wider Pattern in Boston Policing
The McCabe case is not an isolated one. A December 2025 investigation found that disciplinary recommendations issued by Boston's Office of Police Accountability and Transparency sat for months without action, as Commissioner Cox routinely referred sustained oversight findings back to BPD Internal Affairs for re-investigation, according to Boston 25 News' reporting on that pattern. OPAT's Civilian Review Board sustained 19 misconduct allegations in fiscal year 2025, even as department leadership maintained that discipline must be governed strictly by internal BPD investigations. OPAT has faced years of police union pushback over whether officers were obligated to participate in civilian oversight probes, as Hoodline previously reported in Boston Watchdog Slaps Nine Cops With Subpoenas.
McCabe's retirement amid an inactive internal complaint also fits a broader statewide trend. Statewide investigative reporting in 2026 identified more than 50 law enforcement officers who had left prior jobs to avoid discipline, according to WCVB Channel 5. State oversight officials have called it a persistent challenge despite the police reform legislation passed after 2020.
Command structure has also shifted inside BPD since Cherty-Valentin's case wound through the system. In April 2025, Mayor Michelle Wu and Commissioner Cox appointed Phillip Owens as the department's Superintendent-in-Chief.
