Cop suspended after allegedly writing fake ticket, threatening note

A Boston cop has been suspended after he pleaded not guilty Tuesday to sending a phony ticket with a threatening note to a driver after an alleged incident on Interstate 93 near Stoneham last March.

Christopher Curtis, who made $95,551 in 2018, is on administrative leave without pay, a BPD spokesman said Tuesday, after his arraignment on charges of forgery, witness intimidation and false report by a public employee. Curtis was indicted last month after his sham citation was uncovered by BPD’s Anti-Corruption Division, a prosecutor said.

“I have a 6 min video of you driving like an (expletive) HAT, and pulled up to you and took your picture,” a photo of Curtis’ handwritten note to the victim in a prosecutor’s statement of the case said. “Try Fighting this. I DARE YOU!”

Last March 1, as the victim was driving on I-93 north of Boston, a white Toyota Tundra approached the victim’s car “dangerously close” to his bumper, honked its horn and forced the victim’s vehicle inches from the median bumper before exiting the highway 10 minutes later, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Kevin Bergin wrote.

Weeks after the incident, the victim allegedly received a $790 traffic citation for several offenses in the mail with an envelope bearing the BPD logo, including the handwritten note. Woburn District Court personnel noted irregularities with the ticket when the victim tried to appeal it, Bergin wrote, and the personnel referred it to BPD.

The ticket allegedly had an illegible signature, an untraceable officer ID number, was listed as “state” to make it appear as a state police citation, and came from Curtis’ ticket book.

An investigation also pinned Curtis’ cellphone location to the site of the alleged incident, and records indicated Curtis accessed the victim’s information through law enforcement software the night of the incident. Insurance records also indicated Curtis owned a 2014 Tundra with a damaged front grille, which the victim identified.

When questioned by police, Curtis lied in an initial interview before admitting to forging the ticket in a second interview, “offering nonsensical explanations for his actions,” Bergin wrote.

“While he also admitted to writing the menacing note, the defendant claimed he did not intend to mail it with the ticket; it was meant to be a joke sent to another officer with a gift card,” the statement of facts said.

Curtis was released on personal recognizance and ordered to have no contact with the victim. He will return to court Jan. 28 for a pre-trial conference.