BOSTON (WHDH) - A former aide to Governor Maura Healey, who is also on pre-trial release for state drug and gun charges, appeared in federal court Wednesday to face new fraud charges involving illegally claiming federal SNAP benefits.
Prosecutors say Lamar Cook, 46, claimed to have zero income and less than $100 in his bank account when he applied for supplemental income for food earlier this year. They said Cook received more than $540 a month in SNAP benefits based on the application.
Prosecutors said Cook actually had more than $8,000 in the bank, and allegedly received $12,000 in payments from his mother, who won roughly a million dollars in the Massachusetts lottery earlier this year. In court, they showed surveillance photos allegedly showing Cook using the money he illegally received in SNAP benefits in Massachusetts and Florida.
Cook’s girlfriend, who worked for Springfield Public Schools and made more than $80,000 a year, also used the benefits, prosecutors said. Federal officials said she was not authorized to use the account.
“Good, good,” Healey said of the new charges Wednesday. “That’s a federal program, those are federal taxpayer dollars, and I’m glad that the U.S. Attorney’s Office is taking action.”
Cook previously worked for Governor Maura Healey as Western Massachusetts Deputy Director. He was fired last October when he was charged with trafficking cocaine. Prosecutors said he shipped cocaine to a state office building in Springfield where he worked. He also faces gun charges from that initial arrest. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Cook faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted on the fraud charges.
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