BOSTON - A state trooper has been suspended without pay since April in connection with an internal probe into whether troopers were paid for shifts they did not work, state police said Tuesday.
Trooper Eric Chin was suspended without pay on April 13, state police spokesman David Procopio said in an email.
Trooper Chin’s union did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trooper Chin earned $58,970 in 2017 before the suspension, according to the state payroll database. He earned $302,400 in 2016, according to the database.
State police announced Monday that the agency had “launched an investigation into payroll discrepancies uncovered during an ongoing internal audit” and said the probe will be run “in consultation with” Attorney General Maura Healey’s office.
State police said the audit targeted the Accident Injury Reduction Effort patrol shifts assigned to officers in Troop E, the troop that patrols the Massachusetts Turnpike. The audit “found evidence that shifts assigned were not always worked and that troopers were still paid despite not having shown up for their shift.”
Mr. Procopio said Tuesday that officials began investigating Trooper Chin more than a year ago, and that investigation is continuing, while the probe has been widened to include the audit of other AIRE shifts worked in parts of 2015 and 2016 by troopers assigned to Troop E.
“Information the department collected during that internal audit warranted further investigation, which is being conducted by the attorney general,” Mr. Procopio said.
The investigation is the latest to hit state police after some of the top brass resigned late last year following a scandal involving a judge’s daughter.
Ms. Healey’s office has been investigating the agency after reports that two troopers were ordered to alter their reports on the arrest of a judge’s daughter. Alli Bibaud was arrested after a car crash in Worcester, and two troopers alleged they were ordered to scrub their arrest reports of comments indicating Ms. Bibaud said she performed sex acts in exchange for drugs and offered to engage in lewd behavior with a trooper.
The AIRE program is the same program Trooper Thomas Clardy was working on when he was struck and killed during a traffic stop in March 2016.
David K. Njuguna of Webster has been indicted on charges including manslaughter and motor vehicle homicide while driving under the influence of marijuana in connection with the case.