Fall River police officer faces another lawsuit alleging excessive force

FALL RIVER -- A city police officer already accused of assaulting four people while on duty is now facing another lawsuit that alleges he used excessive force against a woman.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston against Fall River Police Officer Michael Pessoa and fellow city officers David Medeiros and Joseph Teixeira. The city is also named as a defendant.

Fall River-based attorney Paul Patten filed the lawsuit on behalf of Kimberly A. Vieira.

Patten did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit alleges that Pessoa took Vieira into custody and assaulted her after she videotaped him and Medeiros on her cell phone while the officers detained two of her friends as they were standing in a check-out line at a local retail store in October 2017.

Vieira alleges that Pessoa ordered her to stop recording, but she said it was her right and continued videotaping the officers.

The civil lawsuit says Pessoa unlawfully took Vieira into custody, handcuffed her and placed her in the police vehicle.

After being driven to police headquarters by Pessoa and Medeiros, Vieira alleges that after she asked why she was being arrested, Pessoa squeezed her by the back of the neck, forcefully slammed her face against her knees and the back of the seat, and choked her around the neck and throat.

Included in the federal court filing are photographs of the alleged injuries that Vieira suffered including a black eye and a mark on her neck.

The lawsuit alleges that Medeiros was aware if the assault and failed to stop it and Teixeira, who was the booking officer on duty, did not come to Vieira’s aid when she informed him of the assault.

The lawsuit cites eight charges that include violations of Vieira’s civil rights, assault and liability on the city’s part.

Pessoa was indicted by a state grand jury in June 2019 on 15 counts for the alleged assaults on four men in four different cases. The charges against the men have since been dropped by the Bristol County District Attorney’s office.

Pessoa was released on $5,000 cash bail after pleading not guilty to charges related to excessive force and filing false police reports and is suspended without pay from the Fall River Police Department.

His case took a strange twist when The Herald News reported two months later that two fellow police officers, Thomas Roberts and Shawn Aguiar, admitted in the grand jury proceedings against Pessoa that they filed false police reports after they were given immunity from the DA.

Former Fall River Police Chief Albert Dupere at the time placed the two officers on desk duty, where they reportedly remain.

A third police officer, Andre Demelo, is also alleged to have filed false reports on arrests associated to Pessoa but declined to testify after he was declined immunity. He resigned from the city police force on the day of Pessoa’s indictment.

After the indictment, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn’s staff requested that Roberts’ and Aguiar’s police chief be notified of their grand jury testimonies, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Judicial Court.

A formal notification to Fall River Police Chief Jeffrey Cardoza is expected, according to a state court filing.

In the same filing, the district attorney is also expected to review more cases involving the police officers.

Last week in Fall River Superior Court, Pessoa’s attorney, Frank Camera, indicated to a judge that he intended to file a motion to dismiss the case.

In May 2019, the city agreed to settle a 2-year-old federal civil rights lawsuit against Pessoa and Demelo for $225,000, to Carlos Roldan who suffered a severe broken leg after being taken into custody by Pessoa.

Roldan had reportedly come out of his parents' house, while his sister was being arrested, asking about the charges when the assault against him occurred.

Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com.