After prosecutors said the detective will never be called to testify in court because of alleged misconduct, Dante DiFronzo was placed on paid leave in 2021 due to an incident years earlier.
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A Somerville police detective at the center of a nearly decade-long battle between the police union, prosecutors, and the city has earned more than a half million dollars in leave pay as the city fights to keep him off the force.
Dante DiFronzo has earned $535,238.40 in administrative leave pay since 2017, payroll records obtained from the City of Somerville show. He was accused of withholding evidence and lying on reports after he “deputized” a street source, who then stabbed someone with a machete in 2015, the city’s lawyer says.
DiFronzo was fired from the Somerville Police Department in 2018. An arbitration ruling three years later ordered him back on the force, but with no back pay. He then won a lawsuit in federal court in 2024 in which he claimed his termination was retaliation after he reported corruption in the department. But, the detective has yet to return to work…