Boston cop gets 1-year probation for tipping off gang to FBI probe

BOSTON - Brian Smigielski was so attached to his role as lead investigator of the Academy Homes Street Gang in the Roxbury neighborhood for the Boston Police Department that he apparently took an attitude towards the situation that has driven many bad late-night romantic thrillers: If I can't have you, than no one can.

The Department of Justice announced late last week that Smigielski has been given 1-year probation and fined $5,000 after pleading guilty to conspiring to obstruct a FBI investigation.

It is unclear whether the police detective is still on the job.

Officials say Smigielski was the lead investigator into the gang up until 2010, when his superiors told him the FBI would be taking over the investigation. The Norton resident became irate.

The DOJ says Simigielski then "conspired with a fellow BPD officer and AHSG gang members to impede the FBI in its investigation of AHSG. Smigielski assisted the AHSG gang members by, among other things, informing the gang members of the FBI's pending investigation and warning them that their arrests were imminent."

Masslive.com reports Smigielski and another cop first met with two gang members, including a known coke dealer, inside Daisy Buchanan's bar on Newbury Street in 2010 to tip them off to the FBI probe. They provided similar tips the following year.

The other cop in the case was also given one-year probation, and is now off the force, Masslive.com reports.