Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins resigned from the Roxbury Neighborhood School Board of Trustees, the place he serves as chair, days after he was arrested in Florida on prices that he extorted a Boston-based hashish firm.
Tompkins supplied his formal resignation in a quick Tuesday letter to Gov. Maura Healey after Republicans referred to as on the governor to take away him from the place. Former Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, appointed Tompkins as board chair in 2019.
“I have greatly appreciated serving as a Trustee of Roxbury Community College’s Board and as Chair of the Board of Trustees,” Tompkins wrote within the letter.
In a press release to the Herald, Healey stated Tompkins “made the right decision by stepping down from the Roxbury Community College Board,” however didn’t say whether or not she requested the sheriff to resign.
Israul Marrero, a neighborhood service officer with the Boston Police Division who’s vice chair of the board, will function appearing chair till Healey appoints a everlasting chair, in response to the Governor’s Workplace.
A spokesperson for Roxbury Neighborhood School stated the establishment and its Board of Trustees “respect” Tompkins’ choice and “are grateful for his years of dedicated advocacy, leadership, and commitment.”
“The RCC Board of Trustees will continue advancing the college’s mission by empowering our community through education,” the spokesperson stated in a press release.
At an unrelated occasion earlier this week, Healey referred to as the allegations in opposition to Tompkins “serious” however stated she wanted “more information before commenting.”
“They’re certainly serious, and no one in elected positions should ever use or abuse their power in an unlawful way,” Healey stated. “I need to know more about this. I need to get more information.”
Mike Kennealy, a Republican operating for governor of Massachusetts and former cupboard secretary below Baker, stated Healey had six days to “do the right thing” and take away Tompkins from a board she controls.
“Instead, she dragged her feet, stalling to shield him from accountability, and only acted once he resigned,” he stated in a press release. “Gov. Healey refuses to take decisive action when it matters most. Public trust in government is fragile, and when an official charged with upholding the law is indicted and arrested, swift, clear action is not optional—it is a duty.”
Brian Shortsleeve, one other Republican operating for governor, stated the “silence from the Governor’s Office is deafening.” Healey has not referred to as on Tompkins to resign, as she has completed for different native Democrats going through authorized challenges.
“Maura Healey needs to do what should have been done last Friday and call on Tompkins to step down as sheriff immediately. We cannot have as the top law enforcement official in Suffolk County someone facing federal extortion charges,” Shortsleeve stated in a press release.
Federal prosecutors accused Tompkins of pressuring an government on the Boston hashish enterprise for inventory within the firm earlier than it was set to launch an preliminary public providing, together with by reminding the person who he helped the corporate in its Boston licensing efforts.
Authorities haven’t named the corporate.
The manager, in response to prosecutors, “believed and feared that Tompkins would use his official position as sheriff to jeopardize” the preliminary public providing and a partnership with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Division that was key to the corporate’s hashish license.
After signing an up to date partnership settlement in 2020 and elevated strain on the manager, federal prosecutors stated Tompkins allegedly obtained a pre-IPO curiosity in firm inventory after the person “relented to Tompkins’ demands.”
Federal prosecutors stated Tompkins wired a $50,000 fee from his retirement account to a different account managed by the manager to buy inventory within the firm at a pre-IPO value.
However years later, the inventory decreased in worth, and Tompkins “allegedly demanded a refund of $50,000 and, despite the decrease in the value of Tompkins’s investment, Individual A agreed to Tompkins’s demands for full repayment of $50,000,” prosecutors stated in a press release.
“Subsequently, from approximately May 2022 to July 2023, Individual A refunded Tompkins $50,000 investment by issuing Tompkins five checks. Allegedly in accordance with Tompkins’s wishes, Individual A wrote memos on certain checks that read ‘loan repayment’ and ‘[company] expense’ to disguise the nature of some of the payments,” prosecutors stated.
A federal grand jury indicted Tompkins, 67, on two counts of extortion below coloration of official proper. A federal decide in Florida launched him on a $200,000 bond and ordered him to journey to Massachusetts to face proceedings within the Bay State.
Supplies from Herald wire companies had been used on this report.
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