Congressional candidate Dean Tran accused of stealing from elderly constituent

FITCHBURG -- Congressional candidate and former Massachusetts State Senator Dean Tran has been charged with intimidating an elderly constituent and then lying to investigators about stealing her firearms.

Attorney General Maura Healey announced that the 46-year-old Republican from Fitchburg was indicted Friday by a Worcester grand jury. Tran served in the Senate from 2017-2020. He is currently running for Congress against Democratic incumbent Lori Trahan. 

Healey alleges Tran visited an elderly woman in June 2019 and intimidated her into giving him her late husband's firearms. She was allegedly coerced into signing a pre-prepared contract, and he gave her $1,500 in cash for at least eight guns.

She states that after Tran was asked to return the guns the next day, he "forced his way into the constituent's home while she was alone, demanded the keys to her husband's gun safe, and stole a Colt .45 while the constituent hid in her bedroom."

Tran was later interviewed by police and he allegedly gave conflicting stories and reasons for taking the guns. 

Among the charges against him include several counts of larceny, filing an application for a license to carry containing false information, and misleading a police investigation.

Tran released a statement Friday night calling the charges politically motivated and "nothing short of an act of partisan corruption." Healey is a Democrat running for Massachusetts Governor.    

Tran will be arraigned in Worcester Superior Court at a later date.