Mass. State Police sergeant arraigned on perjury charge, accused of lying about recruit's death

Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Jennifer Penton was arraigned Wednesday on a perjury charge in connection to the investigation into the death of recruit Enrique Delgado-Garcia. Penton pleaded not guilty and was released on personal recognizance.

Penton is one of four Massachusetts State Police Academy instructors facing charges in Delgado-Garcia's 2024 death, which investigators determined was caused by a brain bleed from an unauthorized boxing match in New Braintree.

Penton, an academy supervisor, along with Troopers Edwin Rodriguez, Casey LaMonte and David Montanez are charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily injury to a person participating in a training program involving physical exercise.

LaMonte is scheduled to be arraigned on May 6 while the others pleaded not guilty during their initial arraignments.

Attorney David Meier, who was appointed to conduct an independent investigation into Delgado-Garcia's death, said Penton gave repeated false answers during the investigation. 

Penton's perjury case is being heard in Middlesex Superior Court, while the case against her and the other three troopers is taking place in Worcester.

During Penton's arraignment on Wednesday, Meier said he filed a motion in hopes of transferring the case and joining it with the Worcester cases. The prosecutor said the goal is to have one trial on all indictments instead of separate trials in different counties.

That motion will be argued during a pretrial conference that is scheduled for June 17.

The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission suspended all four troopers after the charges were announced in February.

Investigators determined that Delgado-Garcia allegedly suffered concussion-like symptoms on September 11, 2024 during "unauthorized, unapproved and unsupervised" sparring exercises. Delgado suffered a massive brain bleed during a competitive boxing match with another trainee the next morning and died a day later.