Former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell’s lawyers have asked a judge to toss the federal murder charges against him.

Farwell is accused of killing Sandra Birchmore and her unborn child after Birchmore told a married Farwell she was pregnant and he was the father. Although a DNA test proved Farwell was not the father, he did allegedly groomed Birchmore from a young age, starting a sexual relationship with her when she was a minor that continued until her death.

Originally, Farwell was indicted on a federal charge of killing a victim/witness in August of 2024, but federal prosecutors brought an additional charge of killing a child in utero against Farwell last fall. He pleaded not guilty to both counts.

Farwell’s defense attorneys said in their filing late last week that the government has failed to state a federal offense and present essential facts in their charging documents and evidence submitted through discovery so far.

“Specifically, the indictment fails to allege a fact essential to establishing federal jurisdiction: that there was a reasonable likelihood that any communication the defendant allegedly prevented would have been to a law enforcement officer or judge of the United States,” the motion read.

Murder is only a federal crime under certain circumstances, including when a person is murdered to prevent them or someone else from sharing information with federal authorities.

Birchmore’s death in 2021 was initially ruled a suicide, and state prosecutors from the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office declined to bring charges against Farwell.

Farwell’s attorneys said facts around potential communication to federal law enforcement officers are missing from the government’s allegations against Farwell, and thus it shouldn’t be a federal case.

“It fails to allege facts essential to establishing federal jurisdiction and, therefore, fails to state a federal offense,” the motion said.

The ex-cop’s attorneys stated that the government’s charging documents also weren’t clear whose communication Farwell prevented by allegedly killing Birchmore. They noted that the government has to prove that the prevented communication would have been to a federal law enforcement officer, specifically, not someone on the state or local level, to fall under federal jurisdiction.

“The statute’s requirement that the communication be to a federal law enforcement officer is a necessary element of the offense,” the motion said. “It is neither surplusage nor is it redundant with the requirement that the subject of the communication be a federal crime.”

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“Even when taken together with the discovery provided thus far, the charging document fails to provide the necessary details to enable Mr. Farwell to prepare a defense,” Farwell’s lawyers argued.

Because the second count of the death of a child in utero is predicated on the first charge, his lawyers said the court should dismiss that, too.

The motion to dismiss noted that the government objects.

A federal judge will hear arguments on the motion to dismiss at a hearing on March 5.