Former Massachusetts State Trooper Sentenced to Three Months in Prison for Overtime Fraud

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts
26 March 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOSTON – A former Massachusetts State Trooper was sentenced today in federal court in Boston in connection with the ongoing investigation of overtime abuse at the Massachusetts State Police (MSP).

Gregory Raftery, 47, of Westwood, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young to 90 days in prison, one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $51,377. In July 2018, Raftery pleaded guilty to one count of embezzling funds from a state agency receiving federal funds.

Raftery admitted that in 2015 and 2016, he was not present and did not work for hundreds of hours of overtime shifts for which he had been paid by the Massachusetts State Police. Raftery admitted that he frequently left overtime shifts early, and, on multiple occasions, did not work overtime shifts at all. To hide his conduct, Raftery submitted bogus motor vehicle citations that were never issued to operators, and then claimed on the citations and internal MSP paperwork that they had been written during overtime shifts that, in reality, Raftery did not work.

Raftery acknowledged that in 2015 he was paid over $24,000, and in 2016, he was paid almost $30,000 for overtime hours that he did not work.

Raftery is the second Trooper to be sentenced as a result of the ongoing investigation. Thus far, eight MSP troopers have been charged and pleaded guilty.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; and Douglas Shoemaker, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dustin Chao and Mark Grady of Lelling’s Public Corruption Unit are prosecuting the case.