What to Know
- Former state police union president Dana Pullman and State House lobbyist Anne Lynch were arrested Wednesday, the FBI and IRS said.
- Pullman is accused of using a union debit card to spend thousands of dollars on flowers, travel expenses and extravagant meals.
- The suspects allegedly tried to manipulate financial documents to conceal their actions after learning they were under investigation.
The former Massachusetts State Police union boss charged by the area's United States attorney in a kickback and bribery scheme came under investigation a decade earlier for double dipping allegations, according to records obtained by the NBC10 Boston Investigators.
Dana Pullman, the former head of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, the union that represents hundreds of troopers and sergeants, faced an internal affairs investigation in 2006 after an inspector questioned his work on paid details.
Pullman, who was previously a state trooper, was assigned to work a desk job at the barracks in Holden at the time. As one of two administrators in the detail office, he was in charge of handling requests to have an officer present during road work and construction jobs.
The assignments can be lucrative for police, who make extra income by working at private job sites. But investigators opened an internal affairs probe into Pullman's conduct after an inspection raised concerns about the detail process at the Holden barracks.
State police concluded that, on 15 occasions, Pullman was paid for working details at the same time he was on the clock for his regular shift, racking up a combined 31.5 hours of detail pay that overlapped with regular pay.
On one day — Jan. 13, 2006 — Pullman's entire eight-hour shift overlapped with an eight-hour detail, meaning he was compensated for both activities at the same time.
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State police also concluded Pullman violated a department directive that limited troopers to working a maximum of 16.5 hours in a 24-hour period on five occasions, and failed to record his detail shifts in the department's electronic record-keeping system on numerous dates.
The allegations were detailed in a 153-page report that was obtained by NBC10 Boston through a request made under the state public records law.
The records show Pullman and the other trooper in charge of detail assignments in Holden logged roughly twice as many detail hours as nearly every other officer in their troop.
A captain who inspected the barracks also raised concerns that no supervisor was assigned to oversee the detail office and that Pullman and another trooper were allowed to broker deals with private construction companies for the amount of hours that troopers would be paid on detail shifts.
According to the captain's report, troopers were regularly paid for eight hours of work for escorting vehicles when most of those assignments lasted less than four hours. The arrangement raised "ethical questions," according to the captain, who suggested troopers were being overpaid.
A major later determined there was insufficient evidence to either prove or disprove allegations that Pullman switched shifts in violation of the department's rules, or assigned paid details in a manner that wasn't fair and equitable. The allegations were deemed not sustained.
It's unclear whether Pullman was disciplined by the department after the 2006 investigation. State police declined to release large sections of their records, citing an exemption to the state public records law that protects personal information.
Neither Pullman nor his lawyer could be reached for comment Wednesday on the internal affairs probe.
Pullman, 57, stepped down from his post as head of the union in September 2018 and retired from his 31-year career in law enforcement. According to state records, he receives an annual pension of about $63,000. He risks losing that pension if convicted of a crime related to his job with state police.
Pullman earned a state salary in the range of $90,000 during his final years on the job, and was also paid more than $70,000 per year by the union. He served as its president for six years before retiring last year.
FBI and IRS agents arrested Pullman at his home in Worcester early Wednesday morning for allegedly misusing union funds for personal gain. Pullman and a Beacon Hill lobbyist who represented the union face charges of wire fraud, honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and obstruction of justice. The pair were released on bond and are due to appear in court again in September.
Speaking outside the court in Boston Wednesday, Pullman's lawyer said he "strongly denies each and every one of the allegations."
