Former officer faces 25 years after guilty plea
Published on March 17th, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - A former Stoneham police officer pled guilty to five counts of tax evasion late last week and now faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines.
According to the United States Department of Justice, Richard McDonough, a long-time SPD officer and former Bow Street resident, pled guilt on Thursday to evading taxes between the years 1992 and 1997. During that time, McDonough was moonlighting as a used car dealer under the license of Car Craft, a Peabody-based dealership, and knowingly failed to report more than $92,000 in net taxable income.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns has set a June 22, 1999 date for sentencing. For each of the five offenses, McDonough faces up to five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.
Early in 1998, an investigation of McDonough and fellow members of the Stoneham Police Department was conducted by the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service which was assisted in the case by the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts. For some time, closure to the case seemed distant, but, late last month, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that it was charging the former officer with the above mentioned offenses.
Neither McDonough, who was reached at his present home in Londonderry, New Hampshire, nor his Boston-based attorney, Thomas Hoopes, wished to comment on the case.
McDonough abruptly resigned from his position as a detective in the Stoneham Police Department on June 13 of last year after the investigation had begun. According to Elsie Wallace, retirement administrator for the Town of Stoneham, McDonough is currently receiving an annual pension of $30,398 for his 25 years of service to the town. This pension is unlikely to be rescinded, an attorney for the town's Board of Retirement has stated, since the charges which are now pending do not stem from his service as a police officer.
After it was announced that McDonough had been charged with tax evasion, Stoneham Police Chief Eugene Passaro told the Independent that the case was expected due to the investigation that had taken place during the past year.
"I wasn't surprised," he said. "There was an investigation going on by the IRS for some time, so why would I be surprised."
Passaro has said that McDonough served the town well in his capacity as an officer during his tenure which started in 1973.
"As a police officer, he performed admirably," the chief explained. "It (the charges) had nothing to do with his work as a police officer.
"I saw no inclination of him being anything other than a good police officer."
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