A former Springfield police detective was arrested at a casino and charged with secretly photographing a woman during sex and criminal harassment, his lawyer calls it a private dispute police pushed into court.
State troopers took Steven Vigneault, 56, of East Longmeadow into custody Tuesday at the MGM casino after he arrived to make complaints against three cocktail waitresses. Instead of filing those grievances, he left in handcuffs.
MassLive reported that court records in Springfield District Court charge the former detective with criminal harassment and taking sexually explicit photos of a woman without her consent. He was arraigned Tuesday afternoon, ordered to stay away from the woman, two of her coworkers, and the casino entirely, then released without bail. A pretrial hearing is set for Dec. 2.
The alleged victim is a 30-year-old Springfield resident who works as a cocktail waitress. She told police she had been dating Vigneault. She claimed he installed a tracker in her car and took photos and videos of her while the two were having sex.
She said she only learned of the images when he showed them to her later.
Police records quote her account directly:
"(The alleged victim) stated that she became aware of these photographs and videos only when Vigneault showed them to her days or weeks after he took them on his cellular telephone,"
Attorney Daniel C. Hagan Jr. represented Vigneault at the arraignment and rejected the idea that this belongs in a courtroom. Shawn P. Allyn will handle the case going forward.
Hagan told the court the matter was personal, not criminal:
"These are relationship issues that shouldn’t be solved by the courts. There were no complaints about Mr. Vigneault before police solicited something to make a case,"
The woman’s statements also described a recent soccer game for Vigneault’s son. She said he drank an entire fifth of tequila, passed out, and vomited on himself. She drove him and his son home, met his partner, was asked to leave, and left.
Public cases involving non-consensual images and voyeurism charges have drawn sharp attention in other high-profile matters, including when a former Doctor Who actor faced voyeurism and sexual assault counts.
The complainant has her own open case. On Sept. 26 she was arrested at Riverfront Park after she and a man were found naked in the backseat of a car before the park opened. Neither had a valid license. The car was towed.
She faces two counts of open and lewd behavior, a threat to commit a crime, and violating park rules. She pleaded not guilty hours before Vigneault’s arraignment and was released without bail. The Republican does not name alleged victims of sex crimes.
Accountability for officials who cross lines with private images has become a recurring theme, from quiet removals after alleged illicit photo discoveries involving a U.S. military attaché to other misconduct cases that force institutions to answer for what they missed.
Vigneault joined the Springfield Police Department in 2013 and later served as a narcotics detective. In 2018 he sat at the center of a department scandal. He first appeared as a witness before a federal grand jury, then faced charges that were later dismissed.
Retired Officer Gregg Bigda, the main defendant in that earlier case and a department veteran since 1984, was acquitted at trial in 2021. Vigneault was never called to testify before the jury. Restraining-order cases tied to a romantic relationship with a coworker were also dismissed.
He left the force during that period and later received a $350,000 settlement from the city after a whistleblower lawsuit. The narcotics unit was dismantled under a U.S. Department of Justice consent decree. That decree ended during President Donald J. Trump’s second administration.
Separate scandals elsewhere have shown how quickly personal misconduct by public figures can collide with political fallout, as when Georgia’s youngest mayor was removed amid spending questions and messages with a high school student.
Vigneault’s current case turns on the woman’s claims of a tracker and non-consensual photos, the stay-away order covering her coworkers and the casino, and his lawyer’s assertion that police solicited a complaint. Court records so far rest on those statements and the Tuesday arrest.
Felony sex-related photo cases continue to surface across the country, including the recent arrest of Lauren Boebert’s son on felony counts tied to sexual exploitation.
The Dec. 2 pretrial date will test whether prosecutors can move beyond the complainant’s account and the defense claim of a manufactured dispute. Springfield District Court has already barred Vigneault from the casino and from contact with the woman and two coworkers while the charges remain pending.
When former officers face allegations of secret recordings and harassment, the public has a right to clear facts, not spin. The record will have to show whether this was a private mess or a crime.