Three brothers who have been held in jail on first degree murder charges for five years will get the chance to be released on bail as an investigation grows around alleged misconduct from a State Police officer who investigated their case.
Judge Christopher Barry-Smith set the bail for Billy, Billoeum, and Channa Phan at $25,000 each, on the additional conditions that they wear GPS monitors on home confinement, turn over their passports, stay away from victims and witnesses, and refrain from possessing guns or other dangerous weapons.
The Phans were on trial for the second time for the murder of Tyrone Phet in Lowell in 2020 when Middlesex County prosecutors came forward with information last month that one of the key investigators in their case, State Police Sgt. Scott Quigley, was allegedly drunk during a fatal 2023 cruiser crash.
The disclosure paused the trial, which was in jury selection, to give the defense an opportunity to investigate the allegations. But following the disclosure of more information, including dash camera footage published by the Herald from the night of the crash and notice that someone in the DA’s office knew about Quigley’s alleged 0.11 blood alcohol level over a year before it came up in court, Barry-Smith decided to continue the trial again to June.
When making the decision to grant bail, Barry-Smith said he took into consideration the “extremely serious” circumstances around the Phans’ alleged crime, as well as their previous violent criminal convictions, although he noted they happened at a young age, and a “short-lived” history of defaults.
“These factors so far do not squarely support the defendants’ candidacy for bail, however, the overall duration of the pretrial detention together with the reasons for the most recent trial delay strongly favor their request,” he wrote.
The brothers’ first trial had ended in a hung jury, leading to the retrial.
“The re-trial would now be complete if not for the Commonwealth’s disclosure, on the sixth day of empanelment and more than two years after the December 2023 crash, of incriminating information concerning Sergeant Quigley, who was not merely an identified witness but a lead investigator in this case and a member of the prosecution team,” Barry-Smith wrote. “Nowithstanding that I have not yet made findings concerning the prosecutor’s knowledge, the disclosure was unquestionably late because of the particular State Police Troopers involved and their role in this case.”
The Phan brother’s lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the case all together for prosecutorial misconduct, but Barry-Smith has yet to decided whether he’ll hold an evidentiary hearing to determine whether there was misconduct, to what degree, and whether it rises to level that the case should be dismissed, the Herald previously reported.
The Suffolk County District Attorney is currently investigating Quigley’s crash, which injured Special Olympian Angelo Schettino who died in the hospital a month after the incident.
Schettino’s family has filed a wrongful death suit against the van company driving him as well as the Mass State Police in Essex County Superior Court. It was from the civil suit that Quigley’s alleged blood alcohol level was revealed.
Barry-Smith scheduled a status conference from the Phan brother for June 2 in the the hopes that the outcome of the Suffolk investigation might be over before they resume the trial.
In addition to the criminal investigation, the Middlesex DA has hired a retired judge to complete an independent review of their handling of the case. Quigley was embedded with the office at the time of the crash. The State Police have also hired an outside firm to complete a review of their response to the crash and are currently conducting an internal affairs investigations.
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