Harvard University Police Union Backs Solet for Middlesex District Attorney

The union representing Harvard University Police patrol officers endorsed David M. Solet in the Democratic primary for Middlesex district attorney, backing the challenger against his former boss, incumbent Marian T. Ryan.

HUPA framed its endorsement around campus and highlighted Solet’s past work with Harvard police.

“In a time when we have seen an alarming number of violent incidents on college campuses, we are supporting the candidate that we know shares our commitment to keeping our students, our faculty, and our university community safe,” HUPA President Joseph E. Steverman wrote in a press release.

“Our members have been working with Dave for years, going back to 2011, when he prosecuted a robbery homicide that occurred in one of our dormitories,” Steverman wrote.

The endorsement comes amid a spate of violence near Harvard’s Cambridge campus, including four separate shootings and a stabbing since April.

Solet, the former head of the Middlesex District Attorney’s cold case homicide unit, was one of the prosecutors in the trial of Jabrai J. Copney for the 2009 killing of Justin D. C. D. Cosby. Copney and two men lured Cosby into the basement of Kirkland House intending to rob him of marijuana at gunpoint. When Cosby attempted to flee, Copney fired three shots, one of which struck Cosby in the abdomen. Cosby died the next day.

Copney was convicted of first-degree murder in 2009 and sentenced in 2011 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Solet has continued to work on the case, testifying against Copney’s release at a February parole hearing.

Copney became eligible for parole after a landmark 2024 Supreme Judicial Court case ruling that adults under the age of 21 cannot be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The ruling also allowed people who had previously received such sentences while under 21 to pursue parole after serving 15 years.

The Massachusetts Parole Board denied Copney parole last week, writing in their decision that Copney “has not yet reached a level of rehabilitation where his release is compatible with the welfare of society.”

Solet, a Harvard Law School graduate, called the Kirkland House shooting “one of the most serious cases” he worked on with HUPD.

He called HUPA’s endorsement “an honor,” pointing to what he described as the union’s limited history of weighing in on political races.

“It’s especially an honor to me when a union that has never felt the need to speak up before speaks up now on behalf of my campaign and the issues that I’m talking about,” Solet said.

Solet has pledged to establish a unit focused on removing illegal guns in Cambridge and reducing gun violence. He said gun violence should be a central priority for universities in the wake of a December mass shooting at Brown University that killed two students and injured nine others.

“The job of a university police department in an urban environment — protecting the students and the faculty, and the university community from violence — is a very serious business,” Solet said. “It’s not just a hypothetical.”

Solet’s campaign says he has been endorsed by more than 25 law enforcement and public safety organizations.

Ryan’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Ryan has a smaller endorsement slate, including support from Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell, and has emphasized her incumbency and more than a decade in office.

The two will face off in the Sept. 1 Democratic primary. Solet is Ryan’s first primary challenger since 2018.

—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at shawnb.18. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.