Published on Thursday, August 28

BOSTON—Two Boston Police Department (BPD) officers testified yesterday that they witnessed their supervisor assault a Harvard undergraduate in a Brighton station house nearly two years ago.

BPD Sgt. Harry A. Byrne Jr. is being tried in U.S. District Court for allegedly violating the constitutional rights of Garett D. Trombly ’03, then a junior economics concentrator, by using excessive force while Trombly was under arrest. Byrne is also accused of witness tampering in the aftermath of the alleged assault.

Compelled to testify by federal subpoenas, two BPD officers told their version of events on the night that Byrne allegedly beat Trombly, breaking his jaw. In January 2002, the prosecution granted the officers immunity from any charges other than perjury resulting from their testimony.

Gregory Lynch, the BPD officer who arrested Trombly, gave the jury a detailed description of the alleged beating, echoing much of Trombly’s earlier testimony.

Lynch said that after leaving Byrne alone with Trombly in a guard room, he heard a loud noise and turned to see the sergeant on top of Trombly, holding him on a wooden bench. He testified that he saw Byrne go on to push Trombly against a wall, throw him into a table and hold him with one hand while hitting him on the side of the face with the other—shouting obscenities and insults at the student all the while.

Lynch said he saw Trombly offer no resistance or act belligerently in any way.

Jeremiah Harrigan, another BPD officer, said he had seen less of the alleged assault, but testified that Byrne had hit Trombly with an open hand and knocked him into the guardroom table, leaving the student “visibly shaken” and “on the verge of tears.”

Byrne’s attorney said in his opening statement Tuesday that while his client had hit Trombly, it was justified by the circumstances.

Defense attorney Frank A. Libby Jr. said that Byrne attempted to restrain Trombly after the student suddenly reach into his baggy jeans pocket, for what turned out to be a cell phone.

The charges faced by Byrne stem from a series of escalating confrontations he had with students over two days in the fall of 2001, unfolding outside the 2021 Commonwealth Ave. apartment of one of Trombly’s friends.

Prosecution witnesses have said that on the night of Friday, Sept. 7, 2001, a party was held at the apartment, attracting the attention of Byrne. Byrne, who was then working overtime as part of a BPD underage-drinking detail, arrested several members of the Boston College women’s basketball team that night for drinking in public outside the apartment.

Maureen Leahy, a friend of Trombly’s, testified Tuesday that she had been verbally harassed by Byrne as he arrested her teammates that night.

Shortly after midnight the next night, Byrne encountered Trombly, Leahy and other friends as they left another gathering at the apartment. The prosecution and its witnesses have said that Byrne again hurled profanities at Leahy, making her weep, while the defense has said the officer spoke politely to her out of a spirit of concern.

Trombly has said that he went to console his friend, uttering a remark critical of Byrne, and walked away as others in the small crowd shouted cruder comments.

According to the defense, Trombly also spit on Byrne’s uniform—an act which they say led to his arrest minutes later on charges of assault and battery on a police officer as well as resisting arrest and public consumption of alcohol.