Crime
The retired captain made thousands of dollars in overtime payments for hours he did not work.
A retired captain of the Boston Police Department was sentenced on Thursday in federal court in Boston for running an overtime fraud scheme that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to prosecutors.
Richard Evans, 65, of Hanover, was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison, and two years of supervised release. He must pay restitution of $154,249.20 and a fine of $15,000, according to the US Attorney’s office of Massachusetts.
A federal jury convicted Evans in March of 2024 of conspiracy to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud.
Evans was arrested and charged in March 2021 after an investigation showed that he and other Boston Police Department officers were lying on their overtime slips to get paid for numerous hours they did not work.
“Members of law enforcement are expected to uphold the law, not violate it,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy in a statement.
“To anyone who may be tempted to follow a similar path, today’s sentence should send a strong message that police officers who steal taxpayer money by fraudulently trying to get paid for hours they do not work will be held accountable and face significant penalties,” he continued.
Evans was a 42-year veteran of the Boston Police Department and one of its highest-ranking officers before he retired shortly after he was charged in this case.
From May 2012 to March 2016, Evans was the commander of the department’s Evidence and Supply Management Division, where he oversaw the Evidence Control Unit, which stored and managed all the police department’s evidence.
The investigation showed that when the police department’s evidence warehouse started overflowing, the department authorized an overtime program to “purge” old and unneeded evidence to make room for new evidence. The program allowed officers to work up to four hours daily after a regular shift.
For almost the entire time Evans was in charge of the Evidence Control Unit, Evans and those under his command “abused” the overtime program to “unjustly enrich themselves,” the D.A.s office said.
Evidence shows that officers only worked an hour or two of overtime but claimed they worked four hours. Since overtime is paid at 1.5 times the regular pay rate, officers got six hours of pay for the four hours claimed.
The evidence warehouse is secured and alarmed when officers are not working there. Alarm records show that the building was not open for hundreds of hours when Evans and other officers falsely claimed they were inside working.
In addition to his base salary, Evans received over $120,000 in overtime payments during his nearly four years as the Evidence Control Unit commander, including over $17,000 in overtime payments for hours that the evidence warehouse was not open.
Evans’s overtime pay allowed his total pay to exceed $200,000 for the years between 2013 and 2016.
Public employees convicted of a crime “involving violation of the laws applicable to his or her office or position” also typically become ineligible to receive a pension, according to Massachusetts state regulations.
“Today’s sentencing sends a clear message that public servants who cheat and steal will be held accountable,” said Timothy C. Edmiston, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Mid-Atlantic Region, in a statement.
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