Top Mass. Probation Official Steps Down

BOSTON (AP) - Another top official with the state Probation Department has resigned in the midst of a hiring scandal.

Elizabeth Tavares, the department's first deputy commissioner, announced Tuesday she was stepping down just three weeks after her boss, Commissioner John O'Brien quit.

Tavares was suspended with pay in November after a special counsel appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court concluded she was "at the heart of perpetuating the sham selection process" in which less qualified job applicants with political connections were hired ahead of more qualified job seekers.

Tavares resigned day before a scheduled disciplinary hearing that could have led to her dismissal.

The Boston Globe reports that Tavares said in her resignation letter that it was in the best interst of her family that she retire.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)