Cop who scammed multiple landlords is now on track to be Massachusetts' 2nd officer to be decertified under new process
Cop who scammed multiple landlords is now on track to be Massachusetts' 2nd officer to be decertified under new process
An officer described by the FBI as "a serial debt fraudster" is set to plead guilty to wire fraud charges. That could make him the second Massachusetts cop to lose his policing certification.
This is a tough one. ACAB but landlords are leeches. I'm really torn here.
They deserve each other! :)
We should punish misbehavior by both.
Robert A. Kennedy, a member of the Stoneham Police Department from 2001 until his resignation in February, was accused of running a recurring scam on his landlords, taking advantage of the slow eviction process in order to live rent-free in various apartments.
Federal prosecutors said Kennedy falsified his rental applications, including by providing the social security number and birth date of a relative who shared his first and last name, in order to obscure a history of delinquent payments, evictions and unpaid debts.
Points for a good scam, I guess, but he lacks the smarts to pull it off.
To date, only one officer has been fully decertified by the commission, which was created by a 2020 policing reform law to give the state more supervision of police departments and their officers.
I guess the Massachusetts decertification program is better than nothing, but not by much, if in three years they've found just one cop in the whole state who shouldn't be a cop.
I think it's relevant that the recent one wasn't putting innocents in jail, or using excessive force. Scam a landlord though, better watch out MF!