The writing may have been on the wall earlier this fall, when Ludlow State Rep. Tom Petrolati refused to cooperate with an investigation of the state Department of Probation ordered by the Supreme Judicial Court. In fact, Petrolati’s fate may have been sealed back in May, when a Boston Globe Spotlight investigation of the probation system revealed that Petrolati, known to some of his colleagues as “the king of patronage,” was the single greatest beneficiary of a corrupt system in which lawmakers continually boosted the probation department’s budget in exchange for campaign donations and jobs for friends and family members. The SJC launched its investigation, led by Independent Counsel Paul F. Ware, Jr., in reaction to the Globe report.
Whenever the first harbinger of trouble for Petrolati may have appeared, the last few weeks have been filled with news that bodes badly for the 12-term lawmaker.
On Nov. 18, the SJC released its report, which described a probation department plagued by “systemic corruption” and rife with “fraudulent” hiring practices “rigged on a grand scale.” The report details a long list of crimes that appear to have been committed, including bribery, conspiracy, conflict of interest, illegal solicitation of campaign funds, perjury and wire and mail fraud. In detailing unlawful acts, the report focused primarily on the conduct of probation department employees, including its now-suspended commissioner John J. O’Brien, and did not make specific allegations of misconduct on the part of lawmakers. Still, the 337-page report is utterly damning in its detailed accounting of what top lawmakers received from probation department employees, including jobs for friends and thousands in campaign cash.
“The evidence demonstrates that an understanding existed among certain legislators and O’Brien that generous appropriations for the Probation Department were linked to O’Brien’s willingness to perpetuate and systematize fraudulent hiring and promotion on a pervasive scale,” the report concludes, listing Petrolati repeatedly as one of the top beneficiaries of the corrupt system. In fact, the report mentions Petrolati by name more than 90 times, repeatedly noting that Petrolati and former House Speaker Tom Finneran invoked their “Fifth Amendment and Article 12 rights and refused to testify.”
Two announcements last week hint at the probable extent of the fallout for Petrolati.
Just a few days before Thanksgiving, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who was also characterized as a major beneficiary of the probation department’s patronage system, announced that he and Petrolati had “mutually agreed” that the Ludlow Democrat would not seek reappointment as speaker pro tempore, the third-ranking position in the House of Representatives. According to a Globe report, many of DeLeo’s fellow lawmakers privately argued for Petrolati’s resignation; only DeLeo’s own role in the scandal—he is the second greatest recipient of campaign donations from the tarnished department, right behind Petrolati—may have prevented him from demanding Petrolati’s ouster.
Meanwhile, State Attorney General Martha Coakley announced that her office would conduct a further probe “to determine the scope of the violation of state law.” Coakley also has asked U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz to determine whether federal laws have been violated.
