BOSTON (WHDH) - A suspended Massachusetts State Police sergeant charged in connection with the death of a state police recruit in 2024 pleaded not guilty to a perjury charge on Wednesday.
Jennifer Penton is accused of lying under oath about when she learned the recruit suffered a possible concussion. It comes two weeks after she and two other troopers were arraigned in Worcester on manslaughter charges. She was released on personal recognizance.
According to court paperwork, “…Sgt. Penton provided false testimony concerning her knowledge of the concussion-like symptoms that Enrique Delgado Garcia suffered during the unauthorized, unapproved, and deficiently supervised boxing-related sparring exercises.”
Penton’s lawyer said after her appearance that she told the truth during her interview with investigators.
“She did not invoke her fifth amendment right to remain silent. She came forward because she had absolutely nothing to hide and because she did nothing wrong here,” Brad Bailey said, defense attorney.
A dozen of Delgado-Garcia’s family members were also in court Wednesday. Their lawyer said it’s challenging, but necessary for them.
“Every time we come here, or come to a court, or we have something significant to tell them it opens the wound again. But they choose that? Absolutely, they want to see justice is done and they’re going to stick with it until it really is,” said Lou Aloise, the family’s attorney.
On September 13, 2024, 25-year-old Enrique Delgado-Garcia died from injuries he sustained while training to become a Massachusetts State Police Trooper. He was repeatedly punched in the head by another recruit during boxing training at the State Police Academy in New Braintree. His autopsy revealed he died of multiple blunt force trauma to the head, and a neck fracture, according to attorneys for his family.
Sergeant Penton, troopers Edwin Rodriguez and David Montanez were indicted by a grand jury in February and are all charged with one count of Involuntary Manslaughter, and one count of Causing Serious Bodily Injury to a Person Participating in a Training Program Involving Physical Exercise. They pleaded not guilty to charges on April 2.
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