‘His greed corrupted others’: Retired Boston police captain gets prison for overtime fraud scheme

BOSTON — A retired Boston Police Department captain was sentenced Thursday in federal court for participating in a long-running overtime fraud scheme that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, officials said.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns sentenced Richard Evans, 65, of Hanover, to one year and a day in federal prison, two years of supervised release, restitution of $154,249.20, and a fine of $15,000, according to Joshua S. Levy, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

A federal jury convicted Evans of conspiracy to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud in March 2024.

Evans, a 42-year veteran of the force, was arrested and charged in March 2021 after a lengthy investigation into the overtime practices of Evans and other Boston police officers.

Levy said the investigation proved that Evans and his fellow officers had been lying on their overtime slips so that they could get paid for countless hours that they did not work.

“Members of law enforcement are expected to uphold the law, not violate it. Mr. Evans abused the public trust and violated his oath, and his greed corrupted others in the department,” Levy said in a statement. “His actions do not reflect the selfless, outstanding work done every day by thousands of Boston Police Department officers and police officers across the Commonwealth. 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.”

Evans, who was one of the highest-ranking officers in the department, retired after he was charged in connection with the fraud scheme. From May 2012 to March 2016, Evan’s served as the commander of the department’s Evidence and Supply Management Division, overseeing the Evidence Control Unit.

When the department’s evidence warehouse started overflowing with evidence, Evans authorized an overtime program to “purge” old and unneeded evidence to make room for new evidence, federal prosecutors said.

Officers in the ECU were authorized to work up to four hours a day after their regular day shift to help purge old evidence, but for “virtually the entirety of the time” that Evans was in charge, he and those under his command “abused the purge overtime program to unjustly enrich themselves,” according to prosecutors.

Investigators said evidence showed that officers rarely worked the hours they were supposed to work, often working only an hour or two of overtime but claiming they worked four hours.

Evans submitted slips for hundreds of overtime hours he did not work and as a supervisor, he also approved the overtime slips of officers under his command who falsely claimed payment for hundreds of overtime hours they did not work, according to prosecutors.

On top of his base salary, Evans received over $120,000 in overtime payments during his nearly four years as commander of the ECU, including over $17,000 in overtime payments for hours that the evidence warehouse was not even open during the hours he claimed he was working.

Evans’ total pay exceeded $200,000 for each of the years between 2013 and 2016 when he led that unit.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW

©2024 Cox Media Group