BOSTON, Mass. — Maura Healey’s office knew about LaMar Cook’s criminal history and hired him anyway, putting him on the payroll as Western Massachusetts Deputy Director at $115,968 a year. Now Cook is charged with trafficking nearly 18 pounds of cocaine through the governor’s own Springfield office.
According to a Boston Herald public records request, Healey’s office and State Police knew about Cook’s record before he was hired. That record includes a 2001 arrest in connection with a Springfield shooting in which he and another man allegedly got out of a car and fired at people on a porch, according to the Springfield Republican. The outcome of that case is sealed. Nobody in the Healey administration thought it was worth a second look.
State Police say they intercepted a package containing nearly eight kilograms of cocaine shipped to Cook’s office. He was indicted on five charges: trafficking in 200 grams or more of cocaine, conspiracy to violate drug laws, possession of a gun without a firearms identification card, possession of ammunition without a firearms identification card, and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Cook is charged, not convicted, and is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Then Healey’s office wrote him a check. After Cook was fired, the administration paid him $31,000 for unused vacation time, money the Executive Office of Administration and Finance says he was not entitled to because he was fired with cause. The administration called it a mistake. Taxpayers are still out the money. Cook spent it, says he intends to keep it, and told reporters, “I earned it.”
The costs to taxpayers did not stop there. Cook was released on bail cut from $75,000 to $25,000 by a Healey-appointed judge, with conditions requiring only that he surrender his passport and not travel internationally. He then enrolled in SNAP, and the Department of Transitional Assistance says the state is prohibited from denying him benefits. He used them to help pay for a family trip to Walt Disney World and has vowed to take more.
The buck stops with the governor. Maura Healey is responsible for who she hires and for every dollar her administration sends out the door. She hired a man with a violent history, lost $31,000 of taxpayer money to him after he was fired for cause, and has not gotten it back. That is not bad luck. It is a failure of basic management.
From the press office of Mike Minogue.