Police Officer Convicted For Off-Duty Racially Motivated Assault

BOSTON, MA — A Boston police officer was convicted Monday of a racially motivated assault on a ride-share driver while he was off-duty and then driving away in the man's Uber car.

After three days of trial, Suffolk Superior Court jury convicted Michael Colin Doherty, 43, of two counts of assault and battery for hitting a 28-year-old Revere man working as an Uber driver in the early morning hours of Jan. 4, 2015. Jurors also convicted Doherty, who was off-duty at the time and has been suspended without pay since the incident, of assault and battery for purposes of intimidation, reflecting his use of racial and ethnic slurs during the confrontation, and use of a motor vehicle without authority for entering and driving several blocks in the victim’s vehicle.

Doherty took an Uber from Charlestown to South Boston, where he told the driver they were in the wrong location and used a racial epithet in the verbal exchange that followed. Doherty then hit his driver, prompting the victim to jump out of the car. Doherty then got out of the car and chased him around the Toyota Prius, yelling at him and calling the victim, who is black, racial slurs. Doherty then jumped into the driver seat and drove away as the victim flagged down a passing car that happened to be another Uber.

The first driver got into the second Uber and the two men followed Doherty until he stopped and got out of the Prius at East 1st Street and Farragut Road.

There, Doherty continued to use racial and ethnic slurs in a second physical confrontation before leaving.

Massport Police arrived seconds later but couldn't find Doherty, who would later surrender to Boston Police. He was arraigned the next day in South Boston Municipal Court and indicted three months later after prosecutors put the case to the Suffolk County Grand Jury.

Jurors acquitted Doherty of violating the civil rights of a second man who intervened in the conflict on the Uber driver's behalf.

“The defendant’s conduct that night was reprehensible,” Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said. “His words and actions have no place in civilized society. They represented a crime against the victims, who were doing nothing more than trying to work for a living, and they were a slap in the face to countless police officers who work hard every day to earn the community’s trust with honor and professionalism. Racially-motivated violence by anyone, sworn or civilian, will be investigated and prosecuted, and no one should ever be afraid to report it.”

Doherty faces sentencing on April 17.

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File photo via shutterstock.