Boston police officer sentenced to prison for role in Hyde Park warehouse overtime scandal

A federal judge this week sentenced a former Boston police officer to six months in prison for her role in the overtime scandal at the BPD’s Hyde Park evidence warehouse.

Diana Lopez, 62, of Milton, has already appealed the sentence. Other officers accused in the scandal who have pleaded guilty or been convicted have been sentenced to probation, and some have been sentenced to begin with a few months of home detention.

Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit theft relating to programs receiving federal funds and one count of embezzling funds from an agency receiving federal funds in June 2021.

In addition to the prison sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton sentenced Lopez to two years of probation and ordered him to pay $36,028 in restitution and a $5,000 fine.

Unlike other BPD officers convicted for their involvement in the fraudulent overtime scheme, prosecutors sought prison time for Lopez because she was involved longer than others and guided new officers at the warehouse into the fraud, so she should share responsibility for the total $386,766 the officers earned in fictitious overtime over a four-year period.

Additionally, Assistant District Attorney Mark Grady wrote that in seeking an 18-month sentence, Lopez testified against the government at the trial of another police officer charged with fraud, even after agreeing to testify for prosecutors — something she had done in other Hyde Park cases. And, he wrote in a sentencing memo, she lied on the stand when she said prosecutors had threatened to take her children away from her if she did not agree to testify for the government.

Grady wrote that Perez must also be punished to send a message to other police officers that the government is tired of them abusing their payroll:

The issue of law enforcement payroll abuse is a recurring topic before this Court, with numerous State Police, Boston Police, and Quincy Police officers having been convicted of various forms of payroll abuse. Simply highlighting this type of behavior has not been enough. Prior convictions alone have not deterred (or adequately deterred) such behavior. Indeed, the behavior in this case has continued, despite a high-profile prosecution in 2018 of members of the State Police Turnpike Unit for similar overtime fraud. This Court itself has convicted one of those State Police officers. This history of similar prosecutions underscores the need for this sentence to serve as a general deterrent. Officers cannot assume that they are immune from the consequences of theft and violation of the public trust.

In their sentencing recommendation, Perez’s attorneys, James Dilday and Anthony Ellison, asked only for probation. They argued that she was not the leader of the overtime fraud ring, but was simply following orders as part of a practice that was “clearly widespread and accepted by the Boston Police Department.” And it would be unfair to send her to prison when other convicted officers have received probation.

It must be remembered that Ms. Lopez was a soldier who received orders from her superiors to leave early once her work was completed. (…) Ms. Lopez was never in a position to challenge her superiors’ instructions. If she had hesitated, she would have been isolated by her colleagues and would not have been considered a team player. She did what she was told. And she is now suffering the consequences. Simply put, she was just a “cog” in the wheel of corruption.