Retired Boston police captain found guilty in OT fraud scheme
Was commander of department’s evidence unit
A retired Boston police captain was convicted Friday by a federal jury of operating an overtime fraud scheme at the department’s evidence warehouse that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the US attorney’s office.
Richard Evans, 65, of Hanover, served as commander of the department’s evidence control unit in Hyde Park from 2012 to 2016, when the overtime scandal involving more than a dozen officers unfolded.
At the end of a week-long trial in US District Court, Evans was found guilty of conspiracy to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud by a federal jury in Boston, Acting US Attorney Joshua Levy’s office said in a statement.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 20.
The verdict “proves no one is above the law,” said Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office. “Captain Richard Evans shrugged off his sworn oath, broke the law to pad his paycheck, failed to lead by example and betrayed the citizens of Boston.”
Attorney Kevin Reddington, who represents Evans, said in a statement his client is “very disappointed” with the verdict. He said the overtime system that led to the criminal charges was the “custom and practice” of the department long before Evans was put in charge of the unit.
Evans, who retired in 2021 after 37 years in the department, led the evidence unit from May 2012 to March 2016.
During Evans’s tenure as unit commander, the department’s “internal affairs (unit) looked at [the system] and never brought any complaints,” Reddington said.
Evans, he said, “served [the department] with distinction for almost four decades.”
“The jury failed him and he will now face many adverse implications including jail sentence, loss of pension and restitution,” Reddington said. “This is just not right.”
Evans was among 15 current and former officers charged in the alleged overtime scheme. Four of them were acquitted of all charges during a jury trial last April. Nine of them had previously pleaded guilty and one officer died while the charges were pending. Evans, who has been free since his arrest three years ago, was the highest-ranking official to be indicted over the allegations of payroll fraud at the warehouse where Boston police keep seized evidence.
Some of the former officers implicated in the scheme testified against Evans at trial.
During his time as commander of the evidence unit, Evans was responsible for approving officers’ overtime, which was paid at 1.5 times their regular hourly pay.
Prosecutors alleged that Evans submitted and approved overtime slips that “grossly inflated” the amount of hours he worked and submitted hundreds of overtime slips for hours he did not work. During the 3 1/2 years Evans led the unit, he collected over $120,000 in overtime payments on top of his salary, which exceeded $200,000, prosecutors said.
Evans also approved overtime slips from subordinates who “split” shifts to work half of the standard overtime hours but claimed to have worked the entire four-hour shift, according to the US attorney’s office.
Splitting the shift ensured that Evans and the other officers were paid for twice the hours they actually worked, according to prosecutors. Alarm records showed that towards the end of Evans’ time at the warehouse, he and officers stopped splitting shifts and instead consistently left two or three hours early while still claiming to have worked the full overtime shift.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Evans misled his superior officers to cover up the fraudulent overtime scheme.
“Every resident of Massachusetts has a right to expect that those of us in law-enforcement will uphold the law,” Levy said in the statement. “When an individual violates that expectation, it hits to the core. It undermines the public’s confidence in our profession.”