Man who bribed former sheriff pleads guilty
Boyle faces 5 years in prison due to ties with McCabe
A businessman who was supposed to stand trial later this month for bribing former Norfolk Sheriff Bob McCabe instead pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Gerard “Jerry” Boyle, 66, admitted in U.S. District Court in Norfolk to a single charge of conspiring to commit mail fraud.
He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he’s sentenced in February. He also could be ordered to pay restitution and forfeit some of his assets.
Boyle’s plea came six weeks after a jury found McCabe guilty of 11 counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering at the end of a three-week trial. McCabe, who served as Norfolk’s sheriff from 1994 to 2017, could get decades in prison when he’s sentenced in January.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa O’Boyle told the magistrate judge presiding over Wednesday’s hearing that the plea deal Boyle accepted was the “most advantageous” one offered since he was first charged in the case in 2019.
Boyle’s trial had been scheduled to start Oct. 26. It seemed on track as recently as Sept. 13, when his attorneys filed a motion asking for a change of venue.
The defense team argued extensive media coverage McCabe’s trial received this summer made it highly unlikely that Boyle could get a fair trial here.
But before a decision was made on the request, a plea hearing was scheduled, according to court records.
Boyle was the owner and operator of Correct Care Solutions, a now defunct Nashville-based business that provided medical care to inmates at jails and prisons across the country. He started the business in 2003, after having worked for another vendor that provided the same services. One of the facilities he worked closely with before creating his own business was the Norfolk city jail, and it was one of the first contracts he won when he started Correct Care Solutions.
Testimony and other evidence introduced during McCabe’s trial showed Boyle frequently gave the sheriff large cash loans that were never repaid. He also paid for trips to resorts and casinos for McCabe, and gave him pricey gifts and premium tickets to sporting events, concerts and other events.
McCabe testified that Boyle gave the gifts and loans to him out of friendship, not because of any business dealings.
He also denied giving Boyle inside information about bids provided by other vendors, or helping his company in the contract process.
But a criminal information filed Tuesday in Boyle’s case said the businessman admitted giving McCabe the gifts, campaign contributions and generous loans in an effort to keep his contracts with the jail.
“Throughout the conspiracy Boyle was aware that he had to provide things of value — including campaign contributions and in-kind political donations — to McCabe to keep McCabe satisfied and to ensure favorable treatment of CCS’s medical services contract,” the document said. “Boyle explicitly understood he had to give campaign contributions — and get others to contribute to McCabe — to ensure that McCabe remained happy with CCS.”
Another jail vendor accused of giving McCabe bribes for years — John Appleton of ABL Management in Louisiana — was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony against McCabe.
Appleton’s company had a food contract with the Norfolk jail throughout McCabe’s tenure in office. He testified at McCabe’s trial that he gave the sheriff trips, gifts, campaign contributions and free catering at numerous events, much of which McCabe solicited from him, in exchange for favorable treatment and reassurance that he’d be able to keep his contracts with the jail.