Nine Hub cops face OT fraud charges
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins is vowing to review criminal cases linked to nine Boston police officers facing federal charges of stealing $200,000 in a multi-year overtime fraud scheme, calling their behavior “suspect.”
“If these allegations are true, these men and women have dishonored the badge. They stole taxpayer dollars, multiple times over a period of years,” Rollins said Wednesday.
“Whatever testimony they may have given in any Suffolk County prosecution during that time is now suspect,” Rollins said of the cops brought before federal Judge Marianne Bowler on Wednesday.
Active-duty officers facing charges of conspiracy to commit theft and embezzlement from an agency receiving federal funds are: Lt. Timothy Torigian, 54, of Walpole; Patrolman Michael Murphy, 60, of Hyde Park; and Patrolman Kendra Conway, 49, of Boston.
The retired officers charged include: Sgt. Gerard O’Brien, 62, of Braintree; Sgt. Robert Twitchell, 58, of Norton; Patrolman Henry Doherty, 61, of Dorchester; Patrolman Diana Lopez, 58, of Milton; Patrolman James Carnes, 57, of Canton; and Patrolman Ronald Nelson, 60, of Jamaica Plain.
All nine officers were arrested at their homes earlier in the day when a federal indictment detailing the alleged nearly three-yearlong scheme was unsealed.
Bowler ordered them released without bond to await trial following a virtual hearing in Boston federal court where six pleaded not guilty. Lopez, Murphy and Conway will be arraigned next week.
The allegations are “very troubling,” Police Commissioner William Gross said. The three active-duty officers have been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the case, he added.
“This kind of official misconduct also erodes trust in public institutions, at a time when that trust is most needed,” US Attorney Andrew Lelling said after the indictment was unsealed.
Authorities allege the officers collectively embezzled over $200,000 in overtime pay in a scam between May 2016 and February 2019 — after a highly publicized overtime scandal at Massachusetts State Police had already started to unravel.
Torigian, who led the evidence control unit, collected more than $43,000 in fraudulent overtime over three years, the indictment alleges. According to city payroll records, Torigian earned $202,620 in salary and overtime last year and has earned more than $200,000 annually since at least 2016.
Other officers all allegedly collected between $15,000 and $25,000 in phony overtime, the feds allege.
Mayor Martin Walsh said he was “quite frankly disgusted” by the alleged scam, adding the charges are “an affront to the thousands of police officers who do their jobs every day with honesty, integrity, and bravery.”