Local News

Scott Quigley allegedly drove drunk and veered into oncoming traffic in 2023, striking a van that was carrying Angelo Schettino.

Already battling a motor vehicle homicide charge, a suspended Massachusetts State Police sergeant now also faces a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of the man he’s accused of killing while allegedly driving drunk in Woburn in 2023. 

The family of Angelo Schettino, 37, filed an amended complaint last week naming Sgt. Scott Quigley and State Police as defendants in their wrongful death lawsuit, seeking $25 million in damages. Coupled with Quigley’s recent indictment, the updated civil suit marks a significant development in a case that has long stagnated.

Quigley initially received only a ticket in the Dec. 12, 2023, crash that fatally injured Schettino, who had developmental disabilities and used a wheelchair. Further details about the incident only emerged earlier this year after concerns about Quigley’s past upended a Lowell murder case in which he had served as lead investigator.

An independent investigation released by the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office this spring determined that State Police omitted key information from their crash reports and failed to officially notify prosecutors of Quigley’s purported drunk driving.

Quigley pleaded not guilty last month to a charge of motor vehicle homicide while operating under the influence, with prosecutors alleging he was drunk behind the wheel when his unmarked cruiser crossed into oncoming traffic and struck a van carrying Schettino back to his group home in Lynn. Schettino died of his injuries about a month later. 

His family filed their initial wrongful death lawsuit last year, naming only the van’s owner and operator as defendants. However, they ultimately dismissed those claims as new information came to light; in court documents, Schettino’s family explained they only learned in January that Quigley’s blood alcohol level was allegedly 0.11 at the time of the crash (the legal limit for driving in Massachusetts is 0.08).

Quigley “represented that he has no memory of the subject crash, that it ‘appears I may have fallen asleep at the wheel’ and that immediately prior to the crash, he felt ‘extremely fatigued and lightheaded,’” the family wrote in one filing, pointing to a report the trooper made just over a week after the collision. 

An attorney representing Quigley in the civil case did not respond to a request for comment. 

Speaking to the Boston Herald following Quigley’s arraignment in April, Schettino’s mother noted the difficulty her family faced trying to gather even basic information about the deadly crash.

“If it was me or you, I mean… this would have been all set two years ago,” Lynn Schettino told the Herald.