The federal government is garnishing a former Stoneham police detective’s pension to pay thousands of dollars of restitution owed to victims in his criminal case.
The federal government is garnishing a former Massachusetts police detective's pension to pay thousands of dollars of restitution owed to victims in his criminal case.
Robert Kennedy's pattern of evictions and unpaid debts was exposed in an NBC10 Boston investigation in 2023. We found the police officer avoided paying his rent while earning a six-figure income as a detective sergeant with the Stoneham Police Department.
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The police officer was later arrested by the FBI and eventually convicted of wire fraud.
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As part of his sentence last January, a federal judge ordered Kennedy to pay more than $14,000 in restitution to Peter Goldstein and his wife, Aarti.
The couple said they rented to Kennedy after he immediately provided a business card to gain their trust. The detective then bounced two checks and also used a family member's Social Security number to provide a clean credit report and hide his eviction history.
It took the Goldsteins seven months to kick Kennedy out of the property after he'd lived there without paying any rent.
Following the federal conviction, the former police officer paid about $300 in restitution. Since then, Peter Goldstein said those payments have stopped.
"It feels like he really has no intention of making this right or paying us back," Goldstein said. "It shows that he doesn't have any remorse."
Brad Bailey, who represented Kennedy in the federal criminal case, said he did not have any comment about the situation.
The deadbeat status prompted federal prosecutors to pursue Kennedy's pension to pay the restitution. A federal judge has now signed off on an order that will garnish 25% of Kennedy's monthly retirement benefit of about $5,000 until the debt is satisfied.
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As we previously reported, Kennedy kept his pension because the Stoneham Retirement Board determined his crime was not directly connected to his public job as a police officer.
As hard as it's been to collect the money, Goldstein is proud of the role he played to expose the person who had been in a position of trust. Kennedy is decertified as a police officer in Massachusetts, meaning he can't work for any other law enforcement agency in the state.
"He was preying on the community, and we're happy that we were able to stop that," Goldstein said.
