Anyone in Westford accused of a crime generally deals with two separate, but equally important groups: members of the Westford Police Department who investigate a crime and members of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office who prosecute the accused. But unlike episodes of Law and Order, there’s one man who bridged the gap between these two sides.
For eight years, that man was Sergeant William Luppold, the Westford Police Department’s now former police prosecutor. Luppold now oversees patrol officers, but he shared an overview of his time as the WPD’s man in the judicial system in a recent episode of Legal Ease on WestfordCAT.
Although he wasn’t a lawyer, Luppold acted as a liaison between officers on the street writing reports or collecting evidence and members of the District Attorney’s office using that information to advance cases.
In that role, he also helped teach younger officers how to provide more detailed reports in cases that progressed through the legal system.
Luppold told Legal Ease host Christopher Lilly that he also helped defendants and their attorneys when needed.
“I always wanted to get into this job to help people, and by that, I helped a lot of people who made mistakes,” Luppold told Lilly regarding many of the defendants he’s had to deal with over the years. “Some of them, it wasn’t (mistakes of) their own. Some of them deserved a second chance and others of them unfortunately didn’t and they went before the judge.”
Luppold now serves as the Westford Police Department’s Patrol Sergeant, switching roles with Sergeant Greg Marchand. It was a role Luppold had once served in the past.
“I missed daily interaction with people. I missed being there, seeing it first hand,” said Luppold. “That doesn’t mean I wasn’t a police officer as a police prosecutor, but you sit behind a desk. After eight years, I needed a break.
More on Lilly’s interview of Luppold can be found on the WestfordCAT website’s on demand area.
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