Cambridge plans to settle a settle a lawsuit filed by retired police lieutenant Thomas Ahern, who said his weapon fired because of a manufacturing flaw and that the city retaliated against him in a dispute over the gun. In addition to suing the city, Ahern sued the gunmaker, Sig Sauer.
In the call to disburse $400,000 from the city’s so-called free cash fund, city councillors present to vote went 6-2 in favor of the payment, saying that not paying the settlement was risky.
A trial could mean “we would be on the hook for many more legal fees and a much larger cost, potentially in the millions of dollars,” vice mayor Burhan Azeem said.
The defense was in response to councillor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler, who argued against the payment as being ultimately irresponsible.
“Every few years this body has been asked to settle a lawsuit involving the police department, sometimes for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because of that settlement, details of the case that would have been known had the case gone to trial are, as a result, not shared with the public. Because of this, fundamental issues with the police department are never addressed, and we are back in the same position a few years later, with the City Council being asked to settle another lawsuit involving the police department for hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Sobrinho-Wheeler said.
Sobrinho-Wheeler cited the example of a $1.4 million settlement that “hid harassment claims against a high-profile Cambridge police officer” until The Boston Globe reported them years later. “The settlement will sweep the details of this case under the rug that cost us both in dollars and also in harm to public safety and transparency that we owe to Cambridge residents,” he said. “I believed moving forward with that settlement was wrong then, and I believe affirming the settlement would be wrong now.”
“You do the math”
His fellow vote against the payment was mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, while Azeem and councillors Tim Flaherty, Marc McGovern, Patty Nolan, E. Denise Simmons and Cathie Zusy were in favor. Councillor Ayah Al-Zubi had left the meeting for a personal matter before the agenda item was taken up.
Simmons made reference to the city’s long legal fight under onetime city manager Robert Healy that ended in a collective payout of around $14 million, including damages. The money went to female employees of color who went to court with complaints of discrimination and retaliation. “We could have settled at the time at $4.5 million,” Simmons said, recalling one of the cases that ended up costing $10 million. “You do the math.”
Nolan said she was sad the council was in this situation but opted to pay the sure thing rather than gamble with city finances in a time of austerity.
More than 100 lawsuits
The council’s trial lawyer member, Flaherty, noted that the Sig Sauer model Ahern used, the P320, had been named in more than 100 lawsuits across the country resulting in “multiple million-dollar verdicts against the manufacturer” – and if the city had a way to resolve its case and limit the potential liability, “we should take full advantage of it very quickly.”
The Ahern case resulted from a 2019 incident in which a gun was taken from its holster inside a vehicle holding several officers on duty at a public event, “not an approved practice,” Sobrinho-Wheeler recounted in city-approved language. No one was hit when the gun fired, but the department recommended discipline.
Ahern is one of three Cambridge officers who have cited issues with the P320, including David Albert, whose case was settled, and Jacques Desrosiers, who went to court after being seriously injured but was awarded no damages by a jury. The gun with officer Frank Greenidge that went off in a Cambridge Rindge and Latin School restroom in 2024 was also a P320; two Somerville officers have also claimed incidents resulting in unwanted discharges and tied to the P320.