PCAC Meeting on September 16

Malden's Police Community Advisory Council (PCAC) meets Wednesday, September 16, against the backdrop of a case that drew Boston Globe coverage this week: the arrest of Malden resident Iara do Carmo Santana, her transfer into ICE custody upon release from Malden police, a federal judge's order releasing her after several days in ICE custody, and further legal proceedings in Malden District Court.

According to the Globe's reporting, do Carmo Santana had miscarried in late August and was being treated for a resulting infection when, on September 4, her fiancé Gabriel Lemos called 911 out of concern for her wellbeing.¹ Malden police responding to the call arrested her instead, on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a household member; an attorney for the Commonwealth said police reported she pushed Lemos with both hands and struck him with a hair straightener¹ She was booked and held at the Malden police station Friday evening.

According to a written correspondence attributed to Mayor Christenson, "she was fingerprinted as part of the standard booking procedure and remained in custody for approximately six hours". ICE agents arrested her as that police custody ended, the Globe reported, after accessing her booking and fingerprint information through a federal database ICE uses to flag people in custody for possible detention.¹ The Globe's account doesn't specify exactly how that handoff happened — whether she was released directly from the station into ICE's custody, or whether an arraignment came first. The state criminal docket, which MNN obtained and is addressed below, adds a piece to that puzzle — and raises a new question of its own.

Based on a review of public and court records, it appears she spent roughly four days at ICE's Burlington field office before her attorneys filed an emergency federal habeas corpus petition.² District Judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered her immediate release on September 8, reportedly admonishing the government over conditions at the facility: "you owe them medical care," he told federal attorneys in court, according to the Globe.¹

We had held off reporting on this developing story until now; below is a mayoral statement on the Malden Police Department's role in the case, and what's on the agenda when the city's police advisory council meets Wednesday, September 16.

The Federal Habeas Case

Do Carmo Santana's attorneys, Todd Pomerleau and Jason Thomas, filed the habeas petition on September 5 in U.S. District Court in Boston, naming as respondents the ICE and DHS officials with custody authority over her case.² The court issued an emergency stay of any transfer or removal the same day. At a September 8 status conference, the government disclosed it intended to transfer do Carmo Santana to a facility in Louisiana, if she remained in custody.²

Judge Sorokin instead ordered her released that day, subject to conditions including appearing in Malden District Court on the underlying charges, seeing a medical provider by September 15, and complying with any release conditions ICE or DHS had already imposed.² Government attorneys entered their appearance and filed a status report on September 11; the case remains active.

What the State Docket Shows — and a Four-Day Gap

The docket for the resulting state case, Commonwealth v. Do Carmo Santana (Malden District Court, No. 2650CR001608), fills in additional details — and opens a new question. Both counts against her — a felony charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (G.L. c.265 §15A(b)) and a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery on a family or household member (G.L. c.265 §13M(a)) — list September 4, 2026 as the date of offense, matching the night Lemos called 911.³

But the earliest entry on the state docket is dated September 8 — four days later — when a criminal complaint was "issued upon new arrest" and an initial arraignment was scheduled and then rescheduled, the same day. There is no state court activity publicly visible on this docket between September 4 and September 8.³ September 8 is also the day the federal judge ordered do Carmo Santana released from ICE custody in the habeas case described above.

Her arraignment was actually held on September 10, before Judge Kareem A. Morgan. She pleaded not guilty to both charges; the court entered a finding that abuse was alleged in connection with the offense under G.L. c.276 §56A, gave a bail revocation warning, and released her on personal recognizance under pretrial conditions formalized on September 14.³ The court also sealed the underlying police report: on September 9, a Commonwealth motion to impound or redact it was allowed, with the unredacted report and a "defendant copy" ordered sealed and a redacted version requested from the prosecutor's office — consistent with the police department's stated position that it won't release records tied to an incident like this one.³

One more thread worth naming plainly: the attorney who entered an appearance for do Carmo Santana in the state case on September 8, Jason Thomas, is the same attorney representing her in the federal habeas matter — both filings come from the same Boston firm.

The Mayor's Statement

A Malden resident reportedly wrote to Mayor Gary Christenson asking about the situation. City Councillor-at-Large Karen Colón Hayes had told constituents she would provide an update; on Tuesday, September 15, she did so, posting the Mayor's written statement and describing it as public record.⁴

In the statement, Christenson — who writes that he "connected with Chief [Marc] Gatcomb to get some clarification on what occurred" — says officers had established probable cause for a criminal offense independent of do Carmo Santana's immigration status, and that she was fingerprinted and held under the state's standard six-hour bail hold. He says ICE contacted the police station shortly after the fingerprinting process to say it intended to issue a detainer, but that this contact "did not influence the actions of the Malden Police Department"⁴ — the arrest, booking, and release proceeded, he says, exactly as they would have otherwise, and no one at MPD initiated contact with immigration authorities. Christenson's statement closes by acknowledging the fear such incidents can create and reaffirming that residents "regardless of immigration status can and should call 911 whenever they need help."

The mayor's statement doesn't address a detail in other reporting: that fingerprinting itself routes booking information into a database ICE uses to identify people in police custody for possible detention.¹ Whether that distinction — a database query versus a phone call — is a meaningful one is likely to be part of what Wednesday's meeting, and our own continued reporting, sorts out.

What's on Wednesday's PCAC Agenda

Colón Hayes had asked City Councillor Carey McDonald — the City Council's liaison to the PCAC — to add the case to Wednesday's meeting. McDonald, responding publicly on Reddit, described the PCAC as a community body, seated since fall 2024, that gathers public feedback and shares recommendations with the police department, though it has no investigative authority of its own; complaints of officer misconduct in Massachusetts go instead to the state Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission.⁵

McDonald noted every PCAC meeting opens with a standing "community feedback" item — the point in the agenda, he said, where he'd expect the case to come up — and that Wednesday's other listed topics, Flock camera use and a PROTECT Act follow-up, both touch on questions about interactions with ICE.⁵

City Councillor Ryan O'Malley separately posted the meeting's logistics on Reddit, referring to the agenda published by the city.⁶⁷

• Wednesday, September 16, 2026 — time not listed on the posted agenda
• Malden City Hall, Room 113, 215 Pleasant Street, Malden, MA 02148
• Recorded via Microsoft Teams; remote attendance available

A Council Still Finding Its Footing

The PCAC's own record-keeping remains a work in progress. Minutes from the council's first meeting, on August 21, 2024, show McDonald convening the group as a facilitator rather than a member, presenting its mission, and stressing the importance of following the state's open meeting law and designating a clerk to post agendas and take minutes.⁸ It remains unclear from the public record who currently chairs the council or what its full membership looks like.

Earlier Tuesday, Open Commonwealth submitted a public records request for the PCAC's minutes from meetings held over the past three years, 2024 through 2026, that have not been posted publicly.