Colleagues knew that Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Scott Quigley shared six drinks with a fellow detective before crashing head-on into a van, leading to a man’s death, prosecutors say.
“Although evidence indicates that certain other members of Quigley’s detective unit knew by the next day that he was drinking at the restaurant before the crash, there is no record that this information was disclosed in a timely way to anyone outside the unit,” prosecutors wrote in their statement of the case. “The overall early handling of the matter by law enforcement remains under investigation at this writing.”
Quigley was at the time of the Dec. 12, 2023, crash a detective assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. He was indicted with motor vehicle homicide through negligent and impaired driving on March 26 — two years and three months after the fatal crash.
Quigley is accused of crashing into a van, leading to the death of 37-year-old Angelo Schettino. The paraplegic Special Olympian survived for a month in the hospital before succumbing on Jan. 13, 2024, to what a state medical examiner determined were “complications from blunt force trauma.”
A statement of the case alleges that Quigley was significantly over the legal blood alcohol limit even an hour after the crash, that his vehicle’s data shows him speeding just before the collision, and that his life was likely saved by the quick thinking of the van’s driver.
The crash
On the day of the crash — a Tuesday — Quigley left his Woburn office a little after 3 p.m. and drove in his unmarked cruiser to a bar and restaurant to have “light food and six drinks” with a fellow detective, prosecutors write in their statement of the case. The statement does not indicate how many drinks each detective consumed.
Quigley was driving his MSP-assigned unmarked Ford Escape down Lexington Street in Woburn when he crossed the center line and “smashed head-on into the van at 4:56 p.m.,” prosecutors wrote. Electronic data from the vehicle indicates that Quigley was traveling at 59 mph in a 35-mph zone just ahead of the collision, according to the statement.
“Although the van driver recalled having no time to react, the van’s tracking data showed that she braked hard and reduced her speed from 27 mph to 6 mph at the point of impact,” according to the statement. “This action may have saved Quigley’s life and prevented serious injury to the van driver, but ultimately could not save Schettino.”
The van driver’s Apple Watch dialed 911 and first responders found “Quigley disoriented and bleeding outside his vehicle.” He was transported to Lahey Hospital in Burlington and treated for head trauma, internal organ damage, and a pelvic fracture — “injuries,” prosecutors wrote, that “kept him out of work for the next eight months.”
Quigley’s pay remained similar surrounding the crash, according to state payroll records, but with a dip in overtime.
In 2023, Quigley received $109,573 in base pay, $28,861 in overtime, and $7,119 in “other pay” for a total of $145,552. The following year, which he spent two-thirds of in recovery, he collected a total of $134,708 total, including $12,526 in overtime.
The State Police suspended Quigley without pay on Feb. 2, but records show $27,758 in total pay for the year.
The investigation
Quigley’s blood was drawn at 6 p.m. The test showed an alcohol reading of 114 nanograms per deciliter, which translates to a blood alcohol level of 0.095 to 0.10, both above the legal limit of 0.08, prosecutors wrote.
A “retrograde extrapolation” to find Quigley’s likely alcohol level at the time of the crash was not performed because the time between the crash and testing was under the two-hour threshold of the MSP lab, prosecutors noted.
When told of his blood alcohol content “several days later,” prosecutors wrote, Quigley expressed surprise and said that he had only had “one drink” before the crash.
MSP Sgt. Jennifer Penton, the patrol officer on duty, “was directed by a lieutenant in Quigley’s unit not to question him that night,” according to the statement. That lieutenant later said the directive was out of concern for Quigley’s “medical condition, not to protect him.”
When Penton interviewed Quigley eight days later, he allegedly said he had no memory of the crash but had felt “extremely fatigued and lightheaded” shortly before it, due to lack of sleep after working late on a death investigation the previous night.
“It appears I may have fallen asleep at the wheel at a curve in the road and continued traveling straight into the oncoming lane,” Quigley wrote in a sworn statement.
Quigley received a written warning for a marked-lane violation.
Fallout
Quigley’s blood alcohol content information was not public record until it was compelled by a judge in January of this year as part of discovery in a civil lawsuit.
Schettino’s mother, Lynn Schettino, in January 2025 filed a negligence lawsuit against the nonprofit Bridgewell, which operated the van.
In turn, Bridgewell the next month filed a complaint against the State Police, stating Quigley was at fault and sought his medical records from Lahey Hospital. Initially provided in redacted form Initially provided in redacted form, a judge ordered the unredacted records released on Jan. 20 of this year.
A Lowell judge halted jury empanelment in the trial of brothers Billy, Billoeum, and Channa Phan, who are charged with first-degree murder and who were investigated by Quigley.
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