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Ex-Mass. State Trooper Charged With Kicking Driver's Head During 2019 Traffic Stop

The trooper "raised his right foot and kicked the driver in the back of the head while wearing his Massachusetts State Police issued boots," prosecutors wrote in a statement

A former Massachusetts State Police trooper is facing a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for allegedly kicking a handcuffed man in the head during a traffic stop on Interstate 93 in Boston in 2019, officials said Thursday.

Paul Conneely was indicted by a grand jury in Suffolk County Thursday and will be in court to face the charge on Oct. 29, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's office announced.

State police referred prosecutors to the case, in which Conneely's car and a suspected stolen vehicle crashed during a traffic stop on Feb. 22, 2019, prosecutors said.

After Conneely helped to handcuff the driver -- who'd gotten out of the vehicle with his hands up, laid on the ground and placed his hands behind his back -- the trooper "raised his right foot and kicked the driver in the back of the head while wearing his Massachusetts State Police issued boots," prosecutors wrote in a statement.

It wasn't immediately clear if Conneely, a 51-year-old from Boston, had an attorney who could speak to the charge.

The driver wasn't identified and prosecutors didn't share his condition after the incident. Nor did prosecutors say when Conneely left the force; The Boston Herald reported in June that he'd been dishonorably discharged.

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