I-Team: Retirement Board Demands Convicted Police Chief Repay $882K In Pension Funds
WINTHROP (CBS) - In an unprecedented case, the Winthrop Retirement Board is demanding a convicted police chief repay $882,051.85 in pension payouts he received over a 20-year period.
The development comes after the board voted unanimously to strip the taxpayer-funded benefit of Angelo LaMonica in April.
The town's former police chief abruptly stepped down amid a federal probe in 1995. Prosecutors accused LaMonica of taking bribes to ignore illegal gambling activity.
However, his actual conviction was filing false tax returns. At the time, the retirement board determined it could not revoke LaMonica's retirement benefit because that crime was not directly related to his role as police chief.
According to Massachusetts law, public officials only lose their pensions if convictions are directly connected to their jobs.
Two decades later, the retirement board revisited the issue after an I-Team inquiry. Board members determined the income LaMonica did not report on his taxes was bribe money, drawing a connecting to his job as police chief.
Since the law requires forfeiture from the time of a conviction, officials are now demanding repayment of funds received dating back to 1995.
"They can ask but it doesn't mean they are going to get it," said Nick Poser, an attorney representing LaMonica.
Poser has decades of experience with pension forfeiture cases and has helped other public officials successfully win back their benefits, including former House Speaker Thomas Finneran.
The attorney faulted the retirement board for changing course after two previous legal reviews resulted in not taking any action against LaMonica's pension. As the I-Team previously reported, neither of those analyses included a review of the federal case file.
Poser said key documents from that file no longer exist because of the age of the case. He maintained the filing of false tax returns is clearly an off-duty transgression, adding he is "100 percent" confident the decision will be reversed.
"It has nothing to do with his job as the chief of police in Winthrop," Poser said.
Poser estimated an East Boston District Court judge will decide on the case later this summer or early fall.
On Wednesday, the author of the 1998 legislation that strips corrupt employees of their pensions applauded the retirement board's decision.
Kevin Blanchette, a former lawmaker and current CEO of the Worcester Regional Retirement System, said there is no statute of limitations on doing the right thing.
"If someone is getting a pension through ill-gotten gains, that has to be corrected," Blanchette said. "You violate the public trust and you don't have the right to a pension that's taxpayer supported for the rest of your life."
In a separate pension case, retirement officials have also stripped the retirement benefit of Joseph Giordano.
The former school administrator was convicted of steering school funds to himself. However, the I-Team discovered his case fell through the cracks for more than six years.
The Massachusetts Teachers' Retirement System is demanding Giordano refund $325,393.40. That decision is being appealed in Haverhill District Court.
Ryan Kath can be reached at rkath@cbs.com. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on Facebook.
