Two Former State Police Troopers Arrested On Public Corruption Charges
BOSTON (CBS) -- Two former Massachusetts State Police troopers were indicted on public corruption charges, the United States Attorney's Office announced Friday. Former Lieutenant Daniel Griffin, 57, of Belmont, and former Sergeant William Robertson, 58, of Westboro, will both appear in federal court Friday afternoon.
From 2015-2018, Griffin, Robertson, and other troopers embezzled thousands of federally-funded dollars for overtime by arriving late and leaving early, according to a statement from the US Attorney.
"To create the impression of they're working the entire overtime shift Griffin and Robertson ensure that their co-conspirators all entered the same false number of hours worked into the system and entered false citation times to make it look like they were working the full four hour overtime shift when instead it was something less," said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. "If the allegations in the indictment are true, these troopers were paid substantial overtime with taxpayer money that was intended to keep the public safe on the roads. But for much of that time Griffin and Robertson weren't even on the roads. They just collected the money for not working at all, lied about it internally and appear to have gone so far as destroying evidence of federal investigation."
Griffin allegedly made and approved false entries on police forms and other documentation to conceal and continue the fraud. In 2017 and 2018 when the overtime scandal came to light, both men and their coconspirators allegedly shredded and burned records and forms to try and cover it up.
Griffin also hid more than $700,000 in revenue from his security business from the IRS, the US Attorney said, and used on-duty hours to work on his company.
He was indicted on one count of conspiracy, one count of theft concerning a federal program, eight counts of wire fraud, and 11 counts of assisting in filing false tax returns. Some of these charges are related to a scheme to defraud a private school, the statement said.
Robertson was indicted on one count of conspiracy, one count of theft concerning a federal program, and four counts of wire fraud.
Wire fraud charges come with a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. The charge of federal program fraud provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.
"These are people occupying management role within their units in the State Police, in part, I think what you're seeing here is a cultural problem within the State Police, and it's one that surely might exist in other policing institutions," said Lelling. "For troopers to engage in this, they have to be operating in a culture where it seems okay to do it, and that's the problem. Removing that culture is how you mitigate this kind of problem in the future."
