$11.9M reasons to demand State Police reforms

Major Kathryn Downey is the highest-ranking woman in the Massachusetts State Police, with an annual salary of $246,991 a year.

But that’s just the start of what she’s been making lately.

Last December, a civil jury in Suffolk County awarded her $11,902,447 in damages and interest for outrageous sex discrimination by the MSP.

It’s probably the largest judgment ever against the State Police, at least for a little while, given the other ongoing State Police scandals in Norfolk, Middlesex and Worcester, among other counties.

But there’s another aspect to this case beyond Major Downey’s $12-million payday.

One of the original codefendants in the case was Trooper Earl Johnson. According to her lawsuit Downey was in a “romantic relationship” with Johnson as they both worked at the MSP academy in New Braintree a decade ago.

Johnson was later dropped as a defendant in a refiled version of the suit. After being disciplined because of his behavior at the academy, Johnson remained on the job until 2024, when he retired with a $100,683-a-year pension.

Then last year Johnson became a certified instructor for the state’s Municipal Police Training Committee (MPTC), which is involved in training local police recruits.

In 2025 he made $4260 on the MPTC payroll. This year he’s already pocketed another $420, although he is reportedly not scheduled to teach at any current or future MPTC-operated academy.

Why is his job as a police-academy instructor significant?

Why would the MPTC would seek out someone like Johnson to teach impressionable young law-enforcement recruits, given what the highest-ranking member of the Mass State Police alleged about him in her initial lawsuit?

In 2016, the lovebirds were both at the academy when she happened to check out his portable hard drive, which was attached to a State Police desktop.

Let’s go to Downey’s lawsuit about Johnson’s computer:

Paragraph 28: “…Downey discovered a number of folders on the hard drive that contained various sexually suggestive photographs and videos of naked women, specifically, their genitalia, breasts and buttocks.”

Paragraphs 30-32: “Another folder contained videos of various women masturbating, some using implements. The folders included images of Trooper Johnson performing sex acts on women. The folders included an image of Trooper Johnson naked and sexually aroused.”

This is the guy the MPTC recruited last year to teach young police recruits?

Paragraph 34: “Downey also uncovered evidence which demonstrated that Trooper Johnson had checked into a hotel while on duty.”

Paragraph 37-39: “Understandably, Downey terminated their relationship. Trooper Johnson stated to Downey that he was a sex addict and that he was ‘out of control.’ He also indicated that he had checked into a hotel to have sex with a woman while on duty.”

Downey reported Johnson to the brass. Those are the rules, right? But this is the State Police, so Downey had to know what would happen to her next.

“As Downey had feared, shortly thereafter, Trooper Johnson began a campaign of retaliation against her.”

She was accused of sleeping with a superior officer, which was untrue. She was transferred out of the academy. She “suffered severe emotional distress and humiliation.”

The suit dragged on for years. At one point, it was thrown out of court. Professional courtesy….

Meanwhile, Johnson himself was “reprimanded in personnel orders” in both 2017 and 2018, “as the result of his actions on various dates in 2016 in the Town of New Braintree… (and) as the result of his actions on March 24, 2016 and on various dates in or around April 2017.”

But he wasn’t fired. Last week an MSP spokesman said, “the Department made the decision in 2017 to return Trooper Johnson to Field Services for the remainder of his career.”

Johnson retired in November 2024 and shortly thereafter went to work for MPTC as an instructor. Nice work if you can get it, I guess.

My question is, did anybody at MPTC do a background check before hiring him?

Finally, apparently the MPTC awoke from its slumbers and realized what Johnson had been accused of.

Let’s pick up the minutes of a meeting of the MPTC board last summer:

“Trooper Johnson’s MPTC instructor certifications were revoked on March 19, 2025, based on disciplinary violations sustained by the MA State Police in 2016.

“After a hearing on April 16, 2025, the (Standards) Subcommittee found that Trooper Johnson established by clear and convincing evidence that the revocation of his instructor certifications was not otherwise in accordance with the law, and reinstated them.”

In other words, in the end it was decided that Trooper Johnson met the very high standards to be an MPTC instructor.

What more do you need to know about the state of law enforcement in Massachusetts?

Multiple calls have been made to the MPTC over the last few weeks, asking for basic information about Johnson’s career at the agency.

I wanted to know why he remained on the payroll until a few weeks ago, even after the jury’s $12-million judgment for his ex-girlfriend against the State Police.

To repeat the question I asked, over and over again, Did anyone do a background check before hiring Johnson as an instructor?

Did anyone ask him about the allegations made by his ex-girlfriend against him? Or why the MSP had “reprimanded” him after she turned him in?

I also inquired what sort of courses Trooper Johnson had been teaching, given the allegations by Major Downey in her public lawsuit?

If Johnson is indeed no longer employed by the MPTC, what are the reasons why he was terminated, given that you considered him perfectly qualified to be an instructor just last year?

None of these questions were answered. The MPTC did not even issue a no comment.

To repeat, Johnson has already collected one paycheck from the agency this year — $420. That’s in addition to his monthly kiss in the mail of $8,390 a month.

This is how your Massachusetts law enforcement system operates, and who is operating it. Think about that.

Who will guard the guards themselves?