State Police lieutenant gets five years for role in overtime scandal

A federal judge yesterday sentenced a former State Police lieutenant to five years in federal prison and ordered him to pay $508,000 in restitution, fines and fees for approving they way he controlled bogus overtime payments to troopers - including himself - in the scandal-plagued traffic-enforcement unit, the US Attorney's office in Boston reports.

After his release, Daniel Griffin, 60, of Belmont, will have to spend three years on probation.

A federal jury in Boston convicted both Griffin and a co-conspirator, Sgt. William W. Robertson, of one count of conspiracy, one count of theft concerning a federal program and four counts of wire fraud. Robertson is scheduled for sentencing on April 30.

Griffin was already a convicted felon before he went on trial - he had earlier pleaded guilty to a total of 15 counts of wire fraud and filing false tax returns by lying about his income on financial-aid applications to the private Belmont Hill School for two of his children - which at one point, when the school questioned his income statements, he threatened to turn in for aid abuses by other parents.

In a sentencing memorandum arguing for a nearly six-year sentence, prosecutors painted a picture of a man at the head of a "criminal cabal," who then went home to try to cheat not only the Belmont Hill School, but the IRS, through fraudulent tax returns claiming his off-hours security company was a money-operation when, in fact, it was raking in dough.

With the power of his badge, with the power of his State Police rank and stature, and with his power over the purse strings of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants, Daniel Joseph Griffin wielded his official authority to steal thousands and thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded overtime with impunity. For years. Those he tapped to join the anointed overtime class that comprised the Traffic Programs Section paid their fealty to Griffin by going along with the program – leave work early, leave overtime shifts early, submit false paperwork, collect additional thousands of dollars in tainted overtime pay, repeat.

Griffin's crimes were even worse when considering that the purpose of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal highway grants was to improve safety and save lives on our public roadways. From the vantage of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the logic was simple – more federal grant money meant more officers on the road, and more hours of traffic safety enforcement. Indeed, to put it into stark perspective, imagine what $142,774 could pay for in additional MSP patrols on the road. Would our roads have been safer, or could a motorist's injury have been prevented with those funds dedicated to additional traffic enforcement? The answer is clear. But equally clear was the fact that, when it came to overtime, Griffin put himself first.

Indeed, Griffin's greed knew no bounds. It wasn't enough to steal tens of thousands of dollars in overtime. Griffin stole thousands of dollars in financial aid from the Belmont Hill School while crying poverty and flashing his MSP credentials via email. Griffin, with his fat MSP salary, inflated with overtime fraud, and his hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax-free KnightPro income, shamelessly squeezed Belmont Hill for additional financial aid, all while pointing his finger and accusing other people of "hiding money." Could an honest Belmont Hill applicant, actually in need of financial aid have been helped by an additional $177,600 in financial aid? Again, when it came to financial aid, Griffin put himself first.

And Griffin again put himself first when it came to paying, or not paying, taxes. Instead of paying his fair share of federal income taxes, Griffin lied to the IRS and his Tax Preparer by methodically shaving income off his general ledger, allowing him to cheat the IRS out of tens of thousands of dollars in taxes every year.

Griffin's attorneys began their sentencing recommendation - for a sentence well below the minimum 4 3/4 years based on a calculation involving his case - by stating that Griffin should not be held account in his sentencing for both the State Police and Belmont Hill charges, because they were completely different "schemes" involving totally different victims, but that, in any case, it was impossible to say just how much of a loss Belmont Hill actually took on aid it gave Griffin. Also, Griffin warranted a reduction in the calculations used to determine a possible sentence because he pleaded guilty to the Belmont Hill charges.

And they argued a short sentence would be enough to both punish Griffin and ensure he doesn't try it again, because evidence shows "short sentences in white collar cases are adequate for both the retribution and deterrence policies underlying general sentence theory," especially for first-time offenders like Griffin, in part because "the ruin of a valued reputation and the stigma of a felony conviction are significant punishment."

And, they continued, the judge should look at all the good things Griffin has done with his life, which includes helping friends and looking out for neighbors - and his intense care for his children, not to mention all the excellent work he did as a trooper, at least before his arrest, including, winning a medal of merit for his K9 work at Logan after 9/11. And:

He read to children at Patriot Place and enlisted a local knitting club to provide stuffed animals to keep in their cruisers to give to children in traumatic situations.

Also, he has medical issues that will only be exacerbated in prison - where he would face personal harm, possibly even including rape, simply because of his long career in law enforcement.

Prosecutors and defense also differed on the severity of the prosecution's proposed sentence when compared to the sentences meted out to other State Police troopers and Boston Police officers convicted of overtime abuse in recent years.

Griffin's attorneys argued the prosecution's proposed sentence would be 25 times longer than most of the other sentences so far, and that's just not fair. Prosecutors argued that Griffin warranted more time not only because he was the head of a significant overtime abuse ring but because, unlike most of the other defendants, he did not plead guilty.

Government sentencing recommendation (1.8M PDF).
Defense sentencing recommendation (399k PDF).