A federal jury found a retired Boston police captain guilty Friday of orchestrating a years-long overtime fraud scheme at the department’s evidence warehouse that cost taxpayers “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” prosecutors said.
Richard Evans, 65, of Hanover, submitted and approved overtime slips for himself and his subordinates “virtually as soon” as he took command of the evidence warehouse, Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. Evans earned over $120,000 in overtime in his three and a half years leading the warehouse on top of his base salary, which was more than $200,000, prosecutors said.
“Mr. Evans’ greed is not a reflection of the Boston Police Department or the many men and women in law enforcement who serve with integrity. However, when individuals put their greed before their public duty, they must be held accountable,” Levy said in a statement.
Evans was convicted of conspiracy to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud. He is scheduled for sentencing on June 20.
Evans was a 37-year veteran of the department and one its highest-ranking officers. At the evidence control unit, he was responsible for approving officers’ overtime, which was paid at 1.5 times their regular hourly wage.
A standard overtime shift at the evidence warehouse ran from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. But officers only worked about two hours of that shift, with some coming in from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and another group on duty from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., prosecutors said.
Evans and the officers claimed the full shift even though they split it between two groups, Levy’s office said.
“By splitting the shift, Evans and officers were paid for twice as much as they actually worked. The split shifts also made it seem like everyone was in the warehouse for the full four-hour shift, thus hiding the overtime theft,” prosecutors said in a statement.
As Evans was near the end of his tenure, he and other officers stopped working the split shift and “consistently” left two or three hours early while still putting in for the entire shift, prosecutors said.
The retired captain misled his supervisor about the fraudulent overtime “to cover up the fact that officers were inflating their overtime hours,” Levy’s office said.
A trial for Evans started Monday and jurors returned with a verdict Friday, finding him guilty on all counts, according to court records. Evans was first charged in March 2021.
This is a developing story.