LOWELL — A Middlesex Superior Court judge denied a bid by the Phan brothers to throw out their murder indictments — and, in doing so, revealed the identities of the two State Police sergeants under criminal investigation in the alleged coverup of Sgt. Scott Quigley’s fatal 2023 crash.
Judge Christopher Barry‑Smith ruled that the defense had not met the “drastic” standard required to dismiss the case, even after prosecutors acknowledged that information about Quigley’s alleged drunk‑driving crash — and the State Police’s handling of it — was disclosed more than two years late.
The judge said the remedy was a trial continuance and expanded discovery, not dismissal.
In the 17‑page decision released on Monday, Barry‑Smith confirmed that retired Lt. Anthony DeLucia — who held the rank of sergeant at the time of the alleged misconduct — and Sgt. Mark Delaney are under criminal investigation for allegedly suppressing key information about Quigley’s December 2023 head-on collision on Lexington Street in Woburn, a crash that killed 37‑year‑old Special Olympian Angelo Schettino and whose key details were not disclosed to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office until January.
The judge’s order aligns with earlier reporting that DeLucia and Delaney — both members of the State Police detective unit assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office — may have played roles in keeping Quigley’s 0.11% blood alcohol content and other crash details out of view.
Neither has been charged.
Barry-Smith wrote that DeLucia had learned in 2024 that Quigley’s medical records showed a 0.11% blood alcohol content, and that he had been at Teresa’s Ristorante in Woburn before the crash. A Middlesex District Attorney employee recalled hearing DeLucia reference the blood alcohol content months before prosecutors were informed, but “did not pass on the information.”
Delaney, meanwhile, allegedly told a supervisor that Quigley was “OK” after the crash — even though Quigley’s injuries kept him out of work for months.
Delaney is now on restricted duty.
Barry-Smith said that the State Police’s initial crash investigation did not include interviews with all first responders, did not probe whether Quigley had been drinking, and did not seek his medical records. The agency ultimately issued Quigley a civil citation for a marked-lane violation.
Quigley was indicted in March for motor vehicle homicide.
The Phan brothers — Billoeum, Billy, and Channa — are charged in the 2020 shooting death of 22-year-old Tyrone Phet outside his Spring Avenue apartment in Lowell. Their first trial ended in a mistrial in November 2024. Jury selection for the retrial was underway in January when prosecutors disclosed the Quigley crash information, prompting Barry-Smith to halt the proceedings.
Defense attorneys argued that the Middlesex District Attorney’s late disclosure amounted to egregious prosecutorial misconduct, claiming the office “knew or should have known” about Quigley’s alleged drunk driving and the State Police’s handling of the crash long before January, Barry-Smith said in the decision. They said the nondisclosure irreparably damaged their ability to challenge the integrity of the murder investigation, which Quigley helped lead.
Barry-Smith rejected the argument, stating in the decision that dismissal is a “remedy of last resort” reserved for cases where misconduct causes “irremediable harm” to a defendant’s right to a fair trial.
The judge said that the crash-related misconduct “does not concern the investigation of Defendants or the September 2021 shooting of Tyrone Phet,” and would serve only as potential impeachment evidence — if the trial judge later decides it is admissible.
He said he addressed the late disclosure by ordering broad discovery from the State Police, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office, and the city of Woburn, which includes the Woburn Police Department that responded to Quigley’s crash, and by continuing the trial. He added that those steps “suffice to avoid any prejudice” to the defendants.
Barry‑Smith wrote that the defense may seek to call Quigley at the retrial to impeach his credibility but stated that any such impeachment would be governed by the rules of evidence.
He continued the Phan murder retrial indefinitely, and no new date has been set. In the meantime, the three brothers continue to be held without bail.
Follow Aaron Curtis on X @aselahcurtis, or on Bluesky @aaronscurtis.bsky.social.
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