A Somerville legal professional has been indicted for trying to bribe the Medford chief of police so his shopper — a marijuana dispensary — would have an awesome likelihood to get the nod to function in Medford.
“You’re alone, right?” Sean O’Donovan allegedly requested an unnamed relative of the chief of police after they met in a Medford parking zone on Feb. 22, 2021, in accordance with the indictment unsealed Friday that reads like a small-scale espionage thriller.
Just 12 days earlier, the federal indictment alleges, O’Donovan, 54, had contacted the individual known as “Individual 1” and proposed a scheme for “Individual 1” to talk extremely to the chief of police — unnamed within the indictment, however clearly present Chief Jack Buckley, primarily based on the timeline — concerning the medical marijuana dispensary enterprise he represented that was trying to open up within the metropolis.
O’Donovan was making $7,500 a month in retainer charges for the corporate and stood to obtain 1% of the enterprise’s annual gross earnings — valued at greater than $100,000 — ought to the enterprise get by way of the regulatory hurdles and open up store in Medford, in accordance with the indictment.
Joshua Levy, the primary assistant U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, stated throughout a Friday press convention saying the indictment that there is no such thing as a info within the indictment to point that the marijuana enterprise had something to do with or was even conscious of the scheme.
The relative informed Buckley concerning the proposed bribe and Buckley, in flip, instantly alerted the FBI to the scheme. The relative, “Individual 1,” agreed to be recorded each in phone and in-person meet-ups with Donovan from the alleged scheme’s beginnings that February by way of the top of that yr.
“I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Medford police chief and his relative who did not hesitate to do what was right and put their community’s interest above their own,” Joseph Bonavolonta, the particular agent answerable for the FBI’s Boston workplace, stated within the press convention.
Massachusetts voters handed leisure marijuana in November 2016, an business regulated by the state Cannabis Control Commission. Two years later, Medford adopted two ordinances to domestically regulate leisure marijuana gross sales. The ordinances established a cap of two marijuana institutions, or MEs, and arrange an area Cannabis Advisory Committee, or CAC, to overview the functions.
The CAC consists of a number of native officers, together with the chief of police, and would grade ME candidates on a 150-point scale, in accordance with the indictment, that may take into account components of constructive native impression, operational plan, administration and possession, and neighborhood and fairness. The ensuing rating would then inform the mayor’s determination on which three companies can be awarded the spots.
O’Donovan’s alleged plan to get his unnamed shopper enterprise a type of three profitable spots was huge on cash — a proposed bribe of a minimal of $25,000 to “probably even $50,000” to Buckley’s relative — however quick on specifics, different to have his shopper rating excessive within the rankings, in accordance with the indictment.
“If (the Chief) goes like this, ‘That guy gets five stars, this kid here gets three stars, and that one gets one star, based on my evaluation,’ that’s all he has to do,” O’Donovan is alleged to have stated in an April 26, 2021, assembly. “You paint the picture so you can hide behind the (expletive) curtain, you do whatever the (expletive) you want.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”