The Massachusetts State Police suspended Troopers Ryan Costello and Robert Branca with pay late Thursday night after the August Oak Bluffs incident on Martha’s Vineyard, where Edward J. Brown was charged with rape. The action came as the criminal case and a separate internal affairs investigation continued, putting two troopers on paid leave while the agency tightened its rules for where guests can stay.
Brown was arrested earlier this month by Boston and Oak Bluffs police at Boston Latin Academy, then pleaded not guilty in Edgartown District Court. He was held on $10,000 bail, far below the $50,000 prosecutors sought, and the case moved quickly from arrest to arraignment because the alleged assault was already drawing scrutiny inside the State Police ranks. That scrutiny now extends to Costello and Branca, even though officials have not said what specific conduct led to their suspensions.
State Police said Brown had been visiting a trooper assigned to the Island for the summer and was staying in temporary housing available to a small number of troopers adjacent to the island barracks. Prosecutors also told the court that Brown was a guest of one of the troopers and a friend of Costello, and that Brown texted, “I’m at the barracks with this chick. Is that OK?” Costello replied, “OK,” according to the assistant district attorney, who also said Brown later texted, “Beers after I slam.”
That exchange matters because it sits at the center of the friction in the case: Brown was inside barracks property as a guest while prosecutors said the alleged assault occurred there. In response, Col. Geoffrey Noble ordered that overnight guests are not allowed at State Police barracks property on Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket, and said the department is reviewing visitor authorization procedures, applicable policies and compliance requirements. The move suggests the agency is treating the incident as more than one criminal case; it is also treating it as a failure of control over who can enter its housing and barracks space.
The internal affairs investigation will continue alongside the criminal case and may go beyond it. For Brown, the bail hearing has already set the immediate terms of the case; for Costello and Branca, the paid suspensions mark the first formal discipline tied to the incident. What remains unknown is whether the review will point to a single lapse or a broader breakdown in how the State Police supervised the island barracks.
