Attorneys for ex-Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell file new motion for his release

BOSTON — Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell is making a new push for bail while he awaits his murder trial.

Farwell is asking to be released on $50,000 bail. His lawyers argue that he has demonstrated he’s not a danger to the community or a flight risk.

The new court filing also said an unidentified person is the biological father of Sandra Birchmore’s unborn child, not Farwell or his brother, who is a named defendant in the civil lawsuit.

The motion outlined that Farwell would live with his mother and added conditions to his release, including confinement to the home except for legal, medical, mental health, or employment reasons; location monitoring; surrendering his passport; no contact with witnesses; and refraining from possessing a gun.

Farwell is accused of killing Birchmore by strangling her on February 1, 2021, and then staging her apartment to make it look like a suicide after she informed him he was the father of her unborn child. He was also a married father of three at the time.

Farwell has been in prison since August 2024, and is charged with her murder and causing the death of Birchmore’s unborn child.

A previous court filing requested that Farwell’s trial be moved out of Boston. In late 2025, federal prosecutors announced that they wouldn’t seek the death penalty.

Farwell has pleaded not guilty to both deaths.

The judge presiding over the case has scheduled the start of Farwell’s trial for Oct. 5, 2026.

Read the new filing:

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