BROCKTON, MASS. (WHDH) - Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker called the alleged actions of three state police troopers who were arrested Wednesday and charged with taking thousands of dollars of overtime pay for hours they didn’t work a “terrible stain” on the department.
Paul Cesan, 50, Gary Herman, 45, and David Wilson, 57, were arrested at their homes and charged with embezzlement from an agency receiving federal funds. They are accused of submitting bogus traffic citations to conceal that they had actually been off the clock.
“I think it’s a terrible stain, as I said before,” Baker said. “On Troop E and on the state police.”
The troopers were members of the now-disbanded Troop E, which was responsible for patrolling the Massachusetts Turnpike from Boston to the New York state border.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling says the men put in for overtime pay for shifts they either left hours early or didn’t work at all in 2016.
The troopers either changed the dates of real traffic citations or submitted citations that never really happened to make it look like they had been working the whole time, according to investigators.
When asked if feels someone in the department dropped the ball in terms of oversight, Baker said, “I certainly believe that the important part here is when we started to notice this string, people started to investigate it. As they investigated it, they continued to pursue it and referred 40 troopers to the attorney general.”
Revelations of potential overtime abuse within Troop E led officials to disband the unit, order body cameras for state troopers and install GPS vehicle locators in police cruisers, among other changes.
“If you get a detail shift to go out and patrol the roads, you have to show up for it face-to-face with your supervisor, when you go out for it and when you come back,” Baker added.
State police have since increased oversight for overtime shifts, according to the department.
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