A former Massachusetts State Trooper, William W. Robertson, has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for his involvement in a fraudulent overtime scheme. Robertson, 62, who served as a sergeant with the Massachusetts State Police, was convicted of wire fraud and theft concerning a federal program, and conspiracy charges last December. He will also serve three years of supervised release, pay $142,774 in restitution, and forfeit an additional $32,180, federal prosecutors said.
Robertson and his co-conspirator, former Lieutenant Daniel Griffin, orchestrated the fraud between 2015 and 2018, exploiting grants meant to improve traffic safety. Both troopers claimed overtime pay for unworked hours in their shifts, including those meant for monitoring sobriety checkpoints.
Griffin, who was sentenced last Friday to five years in prison and ordered to pay nearly half a million dollars, was Robertson’s superior officer in the Massachusetts State Police’s Traffic Programs Section. The scheme saw troopers arriving late and leaving early on assigned shifts, with some records destroyed to avoid detection. Griffin misled his superiors, attributing missing records to accidental loss, according to prosecutors.
This sentencing follows similar cases against multiple Massachusetts police officers involved in overtime fraud, highlighting a broader crackdown on public sector misconduct.
