LAWRENCE — William Castro, a former city police chief and political ally of Mayor Brian DePena, has been permanently stripped of his policing qualifications by the state agency that oversees and credentials police officers.
Castro is “not fit for duty as an officer and is dangerous to the public,” the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, or POST, announced in a decision released Thursday.
POST found Castro knowingly filed a written police report containing a false statement and engaged in intimidation of a witness. Both are crimes in Massachusetts although Castro to date has not been charged.
Castro “has engaged in a pattern of unprofessional police conduct, and there is ample reason for the Commission to believe it may escalate,” according to the decision, voted on and released by POST on Thursday.
The discipline, in part, stems from a Feb. 2, 2024, police chase in which Castro, as acting Lawrence police chief, drove the wrong way up a city street in a Chevy Tahoe in pursuit of a man who tried to cash a bad check at a nearby bank.
Castro has said, and testified in POST hearings, he thought the suspect was an attempted bank robber.
POST initially suspended Castro’s policing credentials in March 2024 and barred him from working in any capacity with Lawrence police. A month after the suspension, Castro “attended a meeting at City Hall and addressed budgeting and staffing issues related to the LPD,” the agency noted in the decision.
POST also said while suspended Castro also “met with a Captain in the LPD at that Captain’s home and discussed an internal affairs investigation.”
Castro has 30 days to appeal POST’s decision in superior court.
Neither Castro’s attorney, Walter Jacobs, nor DePena could be reached for comment Friday.
Leadership in the two Lawrence police unions declined comment on the POST decision.
Castro is a former county corrections officer who first served as DePena’s chief of staff before acting Lawrence police chief for a five-month span. When his policing credentials were suspended by POST, Castro returned to his previous job as DePena’s chief of staff.
DePena fired Castro this spring after audio and video recordings from City Hall were publicly leaked. The recordings remain under investigation by Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office. No charges have been filed or indictments handed up.
Castro after his firing filed a lawsuit seeking $4.5 million, saying he was secretly recorded while he was DePena’s chief of staff, in part, because he is Puerto Rican.
The lawsuit alleges Castro was “secretly audio-recorded without his knowledge or consent” in violation of the state’s wiretapping laws.
He is also named in other complaints and lawsuits filed against the city.
In January 2025, a controversial consultant’s report called for Castro’s termination for several reasons that mimic the POST decision, including falsifying a police report and lying about it, hiring an unqualified candidate as a police officer, intimidating a police officer in an incident involving DePena, and for involving himself in Police Department issues and discussions at City Hall after he was stripped of his credentials.
On Feb. 2, 2024, in a city-issued, black, full-size Chevy Tahoe, Castro pursued a Mercedes sedan during the chase, police said.
According to video of the chase viewed by The Eagle-Tribune, Castro drove, in the opposite direction, up on a city sidewalk near the central bridge in pursuit of the Mercedes.
The consultant’s report included Police Department policy regarding motor vehicle pursuits, which can only be initiated when the situation involves a violent crime with use of force and/or use of a firearm in an unlawful manner.
Castro wrote in a police report that he had responded to an armed bank robbery instead of the lesser, accurate offense of a person who had attempted to cash a bad check, according to the consultant’s report.
“Acting Chief Castro broke the law in an effort to cover up a mistake that he made,” the report indicates. “Instead of accepting the consequences for his actions, he fabricated a false police report. A police officer cannot put inaccurate information into a police report.
“As the leader of the Lawrence Police Department, this conduct is unacceptable. The most important quality an officer possesses is their integrity. Acting Chief Castro has sacrificed his integrity for his own benefit.”
The report adds, “Lawrence Police Department’s sworn Oath of Office states that officers commit to be ‘Honest in thought and deed in both my personal and official life.’”
Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter/X @EagleTribJill and on Threads at jillyharma.