Ex-Natick Cop Convicted Of Sexual Assault To Keep Pension

NATICK, MA — A former Natick police sergeant who pleaded guilty to charges relating to his assault of a town 911 dispatcher will be paid out his police pension.

The news comes after the Massachusetts Division of Administrative Law Appeals upheld the Natick Retirement Board's decision to pay James Quilty his pension. Town officials had opposed this move.

In December 2022, Quilty pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault and battery, and was then sentenced by a Middlesex County judge to three years of probation, registering as a sex offender and completing mental health and substance abuse evaluations, according to Middlesex DA Marian Ryan.

Quilty resigned from the Natick Police Department shortly before the Massachusetts POST Commission suspended his certification that same month.

Shortly after, however, Quilty applied for retirement in January 2023. A hearing was held with the town retirement board that summer which determined that he should be given the pension.

Natick officials appealed that decision, which led to the eventual decision in January.

Quilty assaulted a 28-year-old town dispatcher in April 2020 after a social gathering in a parking lot. Quilty was indicted in December 2021, and was suspended without pay in January 2022.

"On April 12, 2020 the defendant and the victim went to a gathering after work with other members of the Natick Police Department. At one point during the night the defendant inappropriately touched the victim against her will. He continued to touch her despite her attempts to move his hands away from her and to verbally tell him to stop. As the victim attempted to leave, the defendant also reached into her car and again inappropriately touched her and prevented her from leaving," the DA said in a news release at the time.

However, the boards overseeing his pension determined that Quilty is still entitled to the pension because he "did not use his position as a police officer to perpetrate his crimes against the victim. It determined that the crimes Mr. Quilty committed, three counts of sexual assault against a person fourteen years or older, do not implicate his position as a police officer."

Natick also settled a lawsuit with WBUR for $22,000 after the publication said the town withheld public records relating to Quilty's history.

The victim in Quilty's crimes is also suing he and the town.