POST reinstates ex-Hopkinton police officer suspended due to rape reporting

A former Hopkinton police officer who was suspended over his failure to report allegations of child rape against a fellow officer had his certification reinstated by the Massachusetts’ Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission Friday.

Timothy Brennan was fired from the Hopkinton Police Department earlier this year for violating department policies by failing to report sexual assault and rape allegations involving former Deputy Police Chief John Porter and a child. Porter was indicted on three counts of child rape in May 2023. Investigators said he sexually assaulted and raped a Hopkinton High School student in 2004 and 2005 when she was 14 years old and Porter was a school resource officer.

Brennan was hired by the Milford Police Department in July.

In an August hearing, Brennan said the girl had come to him not as a police officer but as a close confidant. POST commissioner Marsha Kazarosian wrote in her decision that Brennan’s to reinstate his certification that his actions do not “currently create a risk to the health, safety, or welfare of the public.”

“It is therefore not completely out of the realm of reasonable comprehension that Brennan may have reacted to the Victim’s disclosures of the assault as her mentor and confident, and not as a law enforcement officer,” Kazarosian wrote. “I do not make any finding as to whether or not that was an appropriate response, given his position as a law enforcement officer. However, I raise it as being a reasonable albeit perhaps ill-advised decision, but one that does not currently create a risk to the health, safety, or welfare of the public.”

According to Brennan, the victim first told him of the sexual assault allegations in 2017 when she was an adult. Brennan said he never reported her allegations because he was worried it would scare the victim and keep her from cooperating with law enforcement.

“In 2017, I did not have a cooperating victim,” Brennan said. “It keeps coming up that I did nothing. I answered phone calls from the survivor. I talked to her. I encouraged her to report it. I encouraged her to continue to seek counseling. I didn’t do nothing.”

Brennan was fried from Hopkinton after the town hired an investigator. Brennan will be able to resume his role with the Milford Police Department.

Brennan appealed the Hopkinton termination and is scheduled for an arbitration hearing in January 2025.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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