Norfolk County Sheriff's Office Gets Another Black Eye

After years of rumors and employee unease, as well as an internal probe that resulted in  charges being filed in September against five people including a now former correction officer, tthe State Ethics Commission’s Enforcement Division has taken action.

This week they issued an Order to Show Cause today alleging that Thomas Brady, Assistant Deputy Superintendent of Jail Operations at the Norfolk County Sheriff’s Office, violated the conflict of interest law on multiple occasions by having subordinate Sheriff’s Office maintenance department employees perform free plumbing work at his home during and outside of their state work hours.

The Order to Show Cause alleges that on four occasions in 2021 and 2022, Brady approached Sheriff’s Office plumbers to perform work at his private residence, including replacing a shower head, replacing his water heater, and repairing his boiler. The plumbers performed this private work, mostly during their state work hours. On each of these occasions, Brady neither paid the plumbers for the work at his home nor reimbursed the Sheriff’s Office for the value of the state work time the plumbers used to do this private work. On the fourth occasion, Brady had a Sheriff’s Office plumber and electrician replace his boiler’s circulator pump, which they did outside of their state work hours and for which Brady gave them each a bottle of wine instead of paying them, according to the Order.

Each time Brady approached subordinate Sheriff’s Office employees regarding private work at his home, his request was inherently coercive due to his rank and position, the Order alleges. The Order further alleges that Brady’s actions violated the conflict of interest law’s prohibition against state employees receiving anything of substantial value given to them because of their official position, as well as the law’s prohibition against public employees using or attempting to use their official positions to obtain valuable unwarranted privileges that are not properly available to them.

Pursuant to the Commission’s Enforcement Procedures, the Enforcement Division files an Order to Show Cause against a subject following the Commission’s finding of reasonable cause to believe the subject violated the conflict of interest law. Before filing the Order to Show Cause, the Enforcement Division gives the subject the opportunity to resolve the matter through a disposition agreement. The Commission will schedule a public hearing on the allegations against Brady within 90 days.

The Commission is authorized to impose a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation of the conflict of interest law.

The Commission encourages public employees to contact the Commission’s Legal Division at 617-371-9500 for free advice if they have any questions regarding how the conflict of interest law may apply to them.