The Stoneham Retirement Board will decide whether to strip the pension of a former police detective convicted of a federal crime following an extensive NBC10 investigation.
At stake is Robert Kennedy’s taxpayer-funded benefit of roughly $5,000 per month. The key question: Was his wire fraud conviction directly related to his duties as a public servant?
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In January, Kennedy—whose career of more than 20 years with the Stoneham Police Department came to an abrupt end once the pattern of behavior was exposed—received a sentence of two years of probation with 90 days of home confinement.
About a year earlier, an NBC10 Boston investigation detailed how 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 Kennedy 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 revealed Kennedy had earned more than a half-million dollars as a police officer.
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 being arrested by the FBI and indicted in federal court, 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.
At its most recent meeting, the Stoneham Retirement Board voted to move forward with pension forfeiture proceedings.
Once all the federal court documents are reviewed, the Board will hold a hearing to review evidence and ask questions. Kennedy can decide if he wants the hearing to be public or private.
Attorney Michael Sacco was appointed as the Hearing Officer and he will draft a recommendation for the Board at the conclusion of the proceedings.
By state law, a public employee’s pension can only be forfeited if a criminal conviction was directly connected to the official position.
The interpretation of that law has been the source of some controversial pension forfeiture decisions in recent years.
We asked Kennedy’s attorney, Brad Bailey, about the implications of criminal conviction on his client’s pension following the sentencing hearing in January.
“There’s no relation whatsoever,” Bailey responded. “None of this was done in the course of his official duties. This is something that related to the facts and circumstances of his personal life.”
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However, Goldstein said Kennedy immediately provided a business card of his detective position when he first viewed the Stoneham apartment to build trust.
“I think he used the position to his advantage,” Goldstein said. “It’s not just his identity as an officer. It’s his experience. He used it against us to delay his eviction, to gain our trust, everything.”
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Denise Casper also ordered Kennedy to pay more than $14,000 in restitution to the Goldstein family.
