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James Crowley, a sergeant with the Cambridge Police Department, sued The Harvard Crimson in Massachusetts Superior Court on Feb. 3 over a November 2024 article in The Crimson, alleging the article defamed Crowley by falsely accusing him of sexual assault.
Crowley, who is seeking at least $50,000 in damages, contended in his complaint that the claims in the article caused him reputational harm and emotional distress. The suit also named the article’s two reporters, as well as “unknown persons” who edited or distributed the article, as defendants.
According to Crowley’s complaint, the Nov. 13 article — which discussed CPD’s hiring of officers from outside Cambridge to fill staff vacancies — initially stated that Crowley had faced allegations of sexual assault that were uncovered by The Boston Globe. A version of the article that appeared in print on Nov. 15 included the claim that Crowley had been accused of sexual assault.
The Crimson issued a correction to the article on Nov. 18, stating that Crowley had been accused of harassment, not assault, in documents obtained by the Globe.
Crimson President McKenna E. McKrell ’26 declined to comment on the suit. At the time of the article’s publication, J. Sellers Hill ’25 was president of The Crimson and Miles J. Herszenhorn ’25 was managing editor. Hill and Herszenhorn declined to comment.
Crowley wrote in his complaint that his counsel contacted The Crimson “immediately” to say that the article included a “false and defamatory statement,” but did not provide a date or time for the outreach.
The Nov. 15 print version of the article stated that CPD Commissioner Christine A. Elow “declined to comment on the continued employment” of Crowley. Crowley’s attorneys asserted in the complaint that the original version of the article “conveyed the impression that Elow was aware of and effectively validated or endorsed the notion” that he had committed sexual assault.
Crowley’s complaint accused the defendants of “distorting” the Globe’s reporting by omitting that he denied the sexual harassment allegations. When The Crimson’s article appeared in print on Nov. 15, it did not mention that Crowley rejected the allegations against him.
By Nov. 18, the online version of the article stated that “Crowley strongly denied the allegations to the Globe, saying that he had not heard of many of the allegations until he was reached by a reporter.”
The suit names police reporters Sally E. Edwards ’26 and Asher J. Montgomery ’26 as defendants. Edwards is currently an associate managing editor at The Crimson, and Montgomery is a comp director for The Crimson’s News board.
Crowley is represented by attorneys from the Boston law firm Pollack Solomon Duffy. His attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
—Staff writer Samuel A. Church can be reached at samuel.church@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @samuelachurch.
—Staff writer Cam N. Srivastava can be reached at cam.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @camsrivastava.
