A former Stoneham police detective with a history of evictions and unpaid civil judgements pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court on Wednesday, following an NBC10 Boston investigation.
Robert Kennedy will be sentenced on Jan. 4, 2024, when a federal judge will decide if the disgraced cop should spend time in prison.
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"My client has accepted full responsibility for the conduct in which he stands charged," defense attorney Brad Bailey told NBC10 Boston outside the courthouse.
In February, an NBC10 Boston investigation detailed how court records show the detective sergeant had a pattern of not paying landlords the monthly rent stretching back two decades, including a property owned by an elderly couple in Woburn.
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We reported how in recent years, housing court records show he and his girlfriend racked up more than $50,000 in unpaid rent while being evicted from apartment complexes in Stoneham and Reading.
During that three-year period, salary records we obtained revealed Kennedy had earned more than a half-million dollars as a police officer.
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As we first reported, federal court documents accused Kennedy of applying for rental assistance to delay eviction proceedings, even allegedly obtaining $10,000 of taxpayer assistance meant for people who make a fraction of his income.
After seeing our investigation, a couple contacted us and said Kennedy and his girlfriend had not paid a dime since moving into their property in late 2022.
During a subsequent interview, Aarti and Peter Goldstein described how the police officer's security deposit and first month's rent checks both bounced. They also showed us how Kennedy had allegedly used a family member's Social Security number to obtain a clean credit report.
The Goldsteins would later provide that same testimony to a federal grand jury, according to the criminal indictment for wire fraud.
Even after the FBI arrest and federal indictment, Kennedy did not pay rent to the Goldsteins. We were there in June when the couple was finally able to evict him from the property.
"This has been a seven-month odyssey," Peter Goldstein told us that day. "It's that difficult and he fought us at every turn. He knew the system. He knew which hearings to go to and which not to. He knew to file his appeals at the last minute. He was very good. He was a maestro at what he did."
The plea agreement calls for more than $14,000 in restitution to account for the Goldsteins' losses in rental income.
In exchange for the guilty plea to two wire fraud counts, federal prosecutors stipulated they would not pursue identity theft charges related to Kennedy's alleged use of a family member's Social Security number to obtain a clean credit report during the rental application process.
Kennedy drove away from our questions when we approached him outside the Stoneham Police Department last February. He called in sick for a couple of weeks before announcing his retirement.
Kennedy also did not provide any answers when we caught up with him outside the federal courthouse following his FBI arrest in late March.
According to sentencing guidelines, the wire fraud conviction and Kennedy's lack of criminal history would call for time behind bars of up to six months.
Kennedy's pension was approved by the Stoneham Retirement Board in late June. He is receiving a gross annual benefit of $60,793, or a little more than $5,000 per month.
Massachusetts law states that a public employee's pension can only be stripped if there's a direct connection between the conviction and the person's job. A spokesperson for the Stoneham Retirement Board said that decision will be made after the conviction is finalized at the sentencing date.
On Wednesday, Bailey emphasized that his client's crime was not related to his career as a police officer.
"It's very important to point out that nothing to which he admitted today and accepted responsibility for is related to, pertained to, or is alleged to be in connection with the official performance of his duties and discharge of his duties as a public safety official," Bailey said.
Ryan Kath can be reached at ryan.kath@nbcuni.com. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on Facebook.
