A Plymouth firefighter on paid leave since November after being accused of secretly video recording his ex-girlfriend in the nude is likely facing new criminal charges after he slammed his motorcycle into a utility pole in a late-night accident.
Richard Pimental, 31, suffered serious injuries when he allegedly veered off Summer Street onto the sidewalk and then struck the pole at the intersection with Oak Street, according to a police report.
He broke several ribs and his collar bone in the July 19 accident, according to his father, also named Richard. He said his son is out of the hospital and recuperating.
When a police officer arrived at the scene at 12:44 a.m. he found Pimental “face down” in a grassy area behind an Eversource pole, an incident report said. A second report by another officer, though heavily redacted, suggests that Pimental was briefly unconscious.
Pimental’s motorcycle was on its side, with severe front-end damage, the incident reports say.
Pimental’s father, who was on his own motorcycle, told police they were together in Taunton for much of the day and then were heading home.
His son sped up on Summer Streetand left his father behind, the report says. A short time later, police said, he struck the pole. His father told police he didn’t see the accident.
Officer Adrian Halpin later issued a traffic citation, citing him for “operating at a high rate of speed on a public way, in a thickly settled area, with a posted speed limit of 30 miles an hour.”
Halpin also said he would seek criminal charges in court, but the exact offense is redacted from the police report. No charges have been issued yet and Pimental has several days to fight their issuance.
Pimental has been out of work but getting paid his nearly $100,000-a-year salary, since last November. Fire Chief Neil Foley placed him on leave after telling Plymouth police that two co-workers — one of whom was a former girlfriend — alleged they were secretly videorecorded in the nude by Pimental.
A short, graphic video was shared with at least one co-worker, the police report said.
Pimental pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in January. His lawyer in the case, Peter Maguire, did not return calls seeking comment.
Town officials said they would take no action against Pimental while the criminal case was pending. It has languished for months, although a motion to suppress hearing is scheduled for late August.
Several months ago, the town appointed an outside firm, Matthews & Matthews, to review the allegations.
Foley said the outside investigation is ongoing, but he is “confident that it will be concluded soon.” He didn’t say whether the new incident will affect Pimental’s status.
Even before the alleged video incident, Pimental had gotten into legal trouble.
He was criminally charged in separate incidents both before and after he was hired by the town. But he was able to land — and keep — the job despite those legal problems.
Two years before he was hired by the town in 2018, Pimental was charged with speeding and driving without insurance and a suspended license, court records show.
And 10 months after he was hired in January 2018 and while still in his probationary period, Pimental was arrested for drunk driving, according to police reports.
On October 7, 2018, at 2:50 a.m. a Bourne state trooper found Pimental asleep at the wheel in the breakdown lane of Route 3 North in Plymouth — with the motor running and the lights on. The car was moving and struck a cement barricade, according to the police report.
He agreed to take breathalyzer tests, which registered readings of .107 percent and .114 percent. The legal limit in Massachusetts is .08 percent.
After automatically losing his license for 30 days, he was facing likely termination. Instead, he resigned, according to former Fire Chief Ed Bradley, who was running the department at the time.
But Pimental, a US Army veteran, was able to invoke a state law, called the Brave Act, that allowed veterans accused of certain crimes, including drunk driving, to have the charges against them dismissed.
Under the law, the veteran must have a “clinically diagnosed traumatic brain injury, mental illness or substance abuse disorder” directly linked to his military service.
At a court hearing, Pimental was described as being classified as 50 percent disabled by the Veterans Administration and eligible for Brave Act relief. His lawyer did not describe his disability.
Eligible veterans are required to follow a treatment plan or the charges against them are reinstated.
A month after Pimental was arrested, the case was dismissed, and he got his driver’s license back.
Pimental took another civil service test and as with any disabled veteran, his name automatically shot to the top of the list.
Even though the town could have chosen someone else, Bradley said there was no discussion of bypassing him for another candidate. And he was hired again.
“He had graduated from the fire academy and was certified. He was all set to go to work,” said Bradley. Pimental was a good firefighter, he added.
According to Foley, the town checks job applicants’ criminal histories but is not permitted to ask about any case that didn’t result in a conviction. All charges against Pimental were ultimately dismissed.
Pimental, who made $100,984 in fiscal year 2023, is currently facing two counts of disseminating photos of an unsuspecting person in the nude and two counts of illegal wiretapping. A conviction could carry up to 10 years in prison and tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
The case began when one of the victims, who had lived with Pimental until they broke up in February 2023, discovered a camera hidden in a new alarm clock on a bedside table in early October, police reports said.
She searched other rooms and found a new “plug wall charger with USB options” that also appeared to have a camera in the face of the charger, police wrote in their report.
The woman, who is not identified in court documents, also found a “suspicious device” on a dresser in a basement bedroom, police said.
On Nov. 21, 2023, chief Foley alerted Plymouth police that he was investigating “a situation” that he believed could implicate a firefighter in criminal conduct.
Plymouth Police Detective Sean Johnson said the two alleged victims, whom he met at the Manomet fire station, told him that they were secretly video-recorded by Pimental.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.