Former MA State Trooper To Serve 3 Years In Overtime Scheme

FRAMINGHAM, MA — A former Massachusetts State Police sergeant will serve three years in prison in connection with the now infamous overtime scheme dating back to 2015.

William W. Robertson, 62, of Westborough, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman to three years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Robertson was also ordered to pay restitution of $142,774 and forfeit $32,180. In December 2023, Robertson was convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of theft concerning a federal program and four counts of wire fraud.

On April 26, 2024, co-conspirator former MSP Lieutenant Daniel Griffin was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release. Griffin was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $329,163, a fine in the amount of $176,700, as well as a $2,100 special assessment.

In December 2023, Griffin was convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of theft concerning a federal program and four counts of wire fraud.

From 2015 through 2018, Griffin, Robertson and other troopers in the Traffic Programs Section at State Police Headquarters in Framingham conspired to steal thousands of dollars in federally funded overtime by regularly arriving late to, and leaving early from, overtime shifts funded by grants intended to improve traffic safety, officials said.

When the MSP overtime misconduct came to light in 2017 and 2018, Griffin, Robertson and their co-conspirators took steps to avoid detection by shredding and burning records and forms.

After an internal inquiry regarding missing forms, Griffin submitted a memo to his superiors that was designed to mislead them by claiming that missing forms were “inadvertently discarded or misplaced” during office moves, officials said.