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Federal prosecutors say they have arrested nine current and former Boston police officers Wednesday for allegedly participating in a scheme in which they embezzled more than $200,000 in overtime pay.
The officers – six of whom are retired – have each been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and one count of embezzlement from an agency receiving federal funds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Massachusetts.
“I am a strong supporter of the police, especially in these difficult times. But all must be treated equally under the law, regardless of wealth, power or station,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in a statement. “These officers are charged with stealing taxpayer money, year after year, through fraud. Beyond the theft of funds, this kind of official misconduct also erodes trust in public institutions, at a time when that trust is most needed.”
The attorney’s office, citing an indictment unsealed today, says the officers were assigned to the Boston Police Department’s Evidence Control Unit, where “storing, cataloging and retrieving evidence at the warehouse” were amongst their duties.
Those assigned to that unit are eligible to earn overtime pay of 1.5 times their regular hourly rate, yet the office alleges that “beginning in at least May 2016, the defendants routinely departed overtime shifts two or more hours early but submitted false and fraudulent overtime slips claiming to have worked the entirety of each shift.”
In one type of shift that prosecutors described as “purge” overtime, the officers were tasked with clearing out inventory in the warehouse during the hours of 4 to 8 p.m. on weekdays.
But “on days which the defendants claimed to have worked until 8:00 p.m., the warehouse was closed, locked and alarmed well before 8:00 p.m., and often by 6:00 p.m. or before,” the office said.
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“Supervisors, who also left early from this shift, allegedly submitted their own false and fraudulent slips and also knowingly endorsed the fraudulent overtime slips of their subordinates,” it added.
Prosecutors allege between May 2016 and February 2019, the officers collectively embezzled more than $200,000 in overtime pay, with the top earner receiving “$43,000 for overtime hours he did not work.”
“The allegations and behavior alleged in today’s indictments is very troubling and in no way reflect the attitudes of the hard-working employees of the Boston Police Department,” Police Commissioner William Gross said in a statement. “I hold my officers to the highest standards and expect them to obey all the laws that they have taken an oath to uphold.”
The attorney’s office also says from 2016 to 2018, the Boston Police Department received “annual benefits from the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Justice in excess of $10,000, which were funded pursuant to numerous federal grants.”
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The officers are set to make their initial appearances at federal court in Boston today.
If convicted, they can be sentenced up to 10 years in prison on the embezzlement charge and five years on the conspiracy charge, with fines of $250,000 for each, prosecutors say.
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