A police officer who pleaded guilty to charges connected to a series of domestic assaults has been decertified by the Massachusetts law enforcement watchdog, a move that carries a lifetime ban from police work in the commonwealth.
Nivaldo Mendes, a former member of the New Bedford Police Department, was charged in January with three instances last year of misdemeanor assault and battery on a family or household member. He also faced two felony charges of strangulation or suffocation stemming from two of the incidents, records on file in Taunton District Court show.
The Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission, a police oversight agency created after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, revoked Mendes’ policing certification during a closed-door vote on July 17, according to a filing posted on its website…