BOSTON — In May 2012, Linda Cherty-Valentin was handcuffed in front of families and co-workers at her then French-speaking Jamaica Plain Montessori school. She had been accused of trying to run down a priest and an usher with her car during a bitter lease dispute with a local church.
The arrest was widely reported in the Boston media and made national news. Cherty-Valentin said it damaged her reputation and her livelihood.
“I had 90 students enrolled. And after my arrest, the majority of the parents left. I was left with 19 students,” she told 25 Investigates reporter Ted Daniel.
Court records and internal police documents obtained by 25 Investigates reveal her arrest was built on a lie. Linda said the final blow didn’t come until 14 years later, when Boston Police changed the findings on an internal affairs complaint she filed.
A WARRANT BUILT ON A LIE
Patrol officers who responded to the initial May 6, 2012, incident left without making an arrest. Eight days later, then-Boston Police Detective John McCabe stepped in and obtained an arrest warrant for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and threats to kill.
In a sworn report, McCabe claimed he spoke directly to all the alleged victims. He detailed that the priest of the church told him he was “afraid” Cherty-Valentin “may attack” him.
In court, the criminal charges were dismissed with prejudice, which means they can never be refiled. During a 2015 civil deposition, McCabe admitted under oath that he had never spoken to the priest before getting the warrant, only to the church usher, who was a retired Boston judge, in the judge’s living room.
Under questioning from Cherty-Valentin’s attorney, McCabe admitted he took no basic investigative steps:
Lawyer: “Didn’t ask if there was a video of it?”McCabe: “No.”
Lawyer: “Didn’t ask if there was a secretary who may have seen it?”McCabe: “No.”
Lawyer: “Didn’t ask if there may have been a witness?”McCabe: “No.”
“I was having literally an out-of-body experience. I couldn’t believe that I was hearing what I was hearing because I was arrested based on the priest fearing my attack. I just couldn’t believe that a detective had lied to get a warrant for my arrest,” Cherty-Valentin said.
A DECADE OF DELAY, THEN AN AMENDED FINDING
Linda filed an internal affairs complaint against Detective McCabe in 2016. Five years later, a deputy superintendent signed a report that accused McCabe of being untruthful.
The case sat inactive, and McCabe retired from the department in 2021 before any discipline was handed down.
25 Investigates has previously reported on internal discipline delays at the Boston Police Department.
In August 2025, 14 years after the flawed arrest, department leadership officially finalized the case, downgrading the internal finding from untruthfulness to neglect of duty. Police Commissioner Michael Cox signed off on an amendment request that states that McCabe’s actions did not “rise to the level of… willful misrepresentation required to sustain a finding of untruthfulness.”
The amendment came six months after a Boston Municipal Court judge expunged the case based on “demonstrable fraud” upon the court from a “false” statement.
Larry Smith, a retired State Police sergeant who leads the law enforcement consulting firm STIRM Group, questioned why the department would alter an internal finding years after an officer’s departure.
“The facts that are there are pretty significant, showing that he wasn’t being honest,” Smith said. “Why would you be opening an IA case five years after somebody’s retired? Somebody’s got to benefit from this. Otherwise, why would you open this case again?”
BOSTON POLICE RESPOND
The Boston Police Department defended the decision in a statement to 25 Investigates:
“There is no finding on a case until the police commissioner signs off on it. Under Commissioner Cox’s leadership, the department has been addressing older cases that should have been finalized years ago, and this is a prime example of that work.”
For Cherty-Valentin, who was labeled a criminal, the amended finding adds insult to injury.
“I want to know who ordered that change,” Cherty-Valentin said.
25 Investigates was unable to locate current contact information for retired Detective McCabe through public records. Cherty-Valentin is calling for an independent audit into how Internal Affairs findings are altered behind closed doors.
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