Ex-deputy cop allegedly called 12-year-old a 'knockout'

(NewsNation) — Ashley Bell is recounting her experiences in the Stoughton, Massachusetts, Police Department Explorers program, led by ex-Deputy Chief Robert Devine, where she alleged there were blurred lines between mentorship and inappropriate behavior.

Bell joined "Banfield" on Thursday to discuss her experiences in the program, which is where Sandra Birchmore met her mentors and future abusers.

Birchmore was found hanging from a door handle in her Canton, Massachusetts, apartment in February 2021. She was 23 years old and 10 weeks pregnant at the time. Birchmore's death was ruled a suicide, but her cause of death was later changed to homicide.

Former Stoughton cop Matthew Farwell is now charged with killing both Sandra and her unborn son. Farwell was Sandra’s longtime boyfriend while he was married to someone else. Prosecutors say Farwell began having sex with her at age 15 while she was a member of the police “Explorers” program for kids.

From internal police investigations, two other Stoughton officers had “inappropriate relations” with Birchmore: Farwell’s twin brother, William, and Devine, who oversaw the youth program.  

Birchmore met all of them at 13. A state police oversight board found that Devine had sex with Birchmore for the last time approximately eight to 10 weeks before her death.

Devine was also investigated for an affair with a woman named Tiffany, which ended in a flurry of restraining orders, harassment charges and Devine’s suspension as deputy chief.

Devine said he did not have a relationship with Bell and "she was obsessed" with him to the point he was "uncomfortable." Bell, now in her mid-30s, says there was a time that she and Devine were alone, when he was a 30-year-old cop and she was a smitten 12-year-old girl.

Bell says she was never sexually assaulted, but alleged that Devine led her into a gym closet and kissed her on the forehead after she became upset upon realizing Devine was engaged.

"He gave me a big old hug, and I was 12 years old, and he looked me dead in the eye, and he said that I was a knockout," Bell said.

"Now he remembers saying we got a big age gap... [but] he doesn't remember calling me a knockout and that when I'm 18, I need to come find him, because he's going to take me out. That's what he told me at 12 years old, sitting on a desk," Bell alleged.