A federal judge rescheduled an initial appearance and arraignment for Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins from Wednesday to Thursday, or nearly two weeks after he was arrested in Florida on corruption charges, according to court records.
A court clerk said the hearing was moved due to a “scheduling conflict.” Tompkins is set to appear before Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelly at 2:15 p.m. inside the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in the Seaport, court records said.
Federal prosecutors have accused Tompkins of pressuring an executive at a Boston cannabis business for stock in the company before it was set to release an initial public offering, including by reminding the person that he helped the company in its Boston licensing efforts.
After Tompkins obtained pre-IPO stock and the company went public, the sheriff’s holdings decreased in worth, and Tompkins “allegedly demanded a refund of $50,000 and, despite the decrease in the worth of Tompkins’s investment, Individual A agreed to Tompkins’s demands for full repayment of $50,000,” prosecutors said in a statement.
Tompkins did not have an attorney listed in court records as of Monday morning, and repeated attempts to reach a spokesperson at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department have been unsuccessful.
A federal grand jury indicted Tompkins, 67, on two counts of extortion under color of official right. A federal judge in Florida released him on a $200,000 bond earlier this month and ordered him to travel to Massachusetts to face proceedings in the Bay State.
Previous Herald materials were used in this report.
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