SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – The state’s highest court has reinstated the indictments against a Springfield Police Officer and a bar owner for their alleged involvement in the so-called Nathan Bill’s case.

Nathan Bill’s bar co-owner Joseph Sullivan and Springfield Officer Derrick Gentry-Mitchell were charged with perjury and misleading investigators in connection to a bar fight between a group of off-duty Springfield Police Officers and four black men back in 2015. Both men had filed a motion to dismiss which was granted in a lower court.

However, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that the lower court was wrong to dismiss the indictment. The ruling reinstates the charges and the case will return to trial.

According to the Supreme Court, the Commonwealth alleged that Gentry-Mitchell falsely stated to investigators and a grand jury that “he did not hear or see anything to indicate that off-duty officers might have been involved in the assault.”

The Commonwealth also alleges that Sullivan falsely stated and mislead Springfield detectives, FBI detectives, and a grand jury about the April 2015 altercation, whether he was aware that John Sullivan also left the bar, and stating he called a taxi for the victims when they left the bar and saw them leave in that taxi.

In 2019, 16 individuals were indicted. Gentry-Mitchell was indicted on one count of perjury, one count of misleading investigators, and one count of making a false police report. Sullivan was indicted on one count of perjury and one count of misleading investigators.