A federal grand jury has indicted Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins for allegedly trying to extort $500,000 from a cannabis company executive.
“Elected officials, particularly those in law enforcement, are expected to be ethical, honest and law abiding – not self-serving,” said U.S. Attorney Leah Foley. “His alleged actions are an affront to the voters and taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department.”
Tompkins became sheriff in 2013 through appointment, elected in 2014 in a special election, and won a six-year term in 2016.
According to the indictment, Tompkins faces accusations of forcing the executive to sell him a “pre-IPO equity interest” in the company for “$50,000 in exchange for Tompkins’s favorable action or inaction” as sheriff toward the company in 2019.
Between 2021 and 2022, Tompkins faced re-election. He allegedly told the executive to refund his $50,000 so he could pay for his campaign and personal expenses.
The executive did not have this agreement with Tompkins. Still, he claimed he feared “Tompkins could use his official authority as Sheriff to terminate the SCSD’s ongoing partnership” with the company and jeopardize its dispensary license renewals.
Overall, Tompkins took $152,437, $161,911, and $172,783 from 2020 to 2022.
Tompkins faces 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.
Get this. In March 2023, Tompkins paid a $12,300 civil penalty due to violating the conflict of interest law. He created “a paid position in the Sheriff’s Department for his niece and by repeatedly asking his subordinates to do personal errands for him.”
Suffolk County is not a sanctuary county, but many cities within it are sanctuary cities.
Yes, the county has Boston, and we all know how well that is going!
In October 2019, Tompkins announced the county police department ended its contract with ICE. He claimed it had nothing to do with immigration, but because the prisons needed “room for the provision of rehabilitation services to women.”
Tompkins then joined 20 Massachusetts law enforcement leaders in support of a law “that would allow all qualified Bay State residents to apply for a standard state driver’s license, regardless of their immigration status.”
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