IAPE Evidence Blog

Telegram & Gazette (Worces­ter, MA)
BYLINE: BRIAN LEE, Telegram & Gazette

Spring­field, MA

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Former Hol­land Police Chief Kevin P. Glea­son was sen­tenced to two years in prison yes­ter­day after plead­ing guilty to charges he pock­eted money from 16 town-bought guns and rifles he sold, many to police offi­cers in other communities.

Mr. Glea­son, 47, also admit­ted tak­ing $2,190 from an evi­dence locker to which only he had access. The money had been seized in a drug arrest.

Also, Mr. Glea­son admit­ted he received reim­burse­ment of $655 for a con­fer­ence he never attended.

Mr. Glea­son pleaded guilty in Ham­p­den Supe­rior Court to lar­ceny by scheme of more than $250 and two counts of lar­ceny of more than $250.

Judge Peter A. Velis sen­tenced the for­mer chief to two years in the House of Cor­rec­tion and three years’ pro­ba­tion, a sen­tence sought by Assis­tant Dis­trict Attor­ney James C. Oren­stein. The for­mer chief was ordered to pay $9,934 in resti­tu­tion to cover a por­tion not recov­ered by inves­ti­ga­tors, Mr. Oren­stein said.

Mr. Gleason’s lawyer, William Kring, asked the judge to sen­tence Mr. Glea­son to pro­ba­tion or house arrest.

Mr. Glea­son will not begin his sen­tence until Sept. 28, after a hear­ing to dis­cuss arrange­ments for treat­ment of a med­ical con­di­tion while he is behind bars.

He was chief of the Hol­land Police Depart­ment from Sep­tem­ber 2002 to

May, when he stepped down for what he said was a health prob­lem. He had become act­ing chief in June 2002.

Mr. Glea­son, dur­ing a pro­tracted period, bought through town war­rants 28 guns and rifles, accord­ing to the pros­e­cu­tor. Mr. Glea­son sold 16 of them. On two occa­sions the buy­ers paid in cash. Most of the weapons were recov­ered, but three were not.

The for­mer chief can­celed his plans to attend a Sep­tem­ber 2007 con­fer­ence the town paid for him to attend in Con­necti­cut, the pros­e­cu­tor said.

In Decem­ber, a Hol­land police offi­cer made a nar­cotic arrest and seized $2,190. The chief soon after­ward claimed to have sub­mit­ted $2,180 of the seized drug money to the town trea­surer, who con­firmed that munic­i­pal office never received it. Mr. Glea­son had the only key to the evi­dence locker, the pros­e­cu­tor said.

Mr. Glea­son, who had no pre­vi­ous crim­i­nal record, answered yes when Judge Velis asked, “Did you do what he said you did?”

The pros­e­cu­tor said the court had seen thefts of larger sums of money, which may have resulted in pro­ba­tion. But Mr. Oren­stein noted “the egre­gious breach of the public’s trust,” the ille­gal actions dur­ing a four– or five-year span and the three dif­fer­ent ways he mis­ap­pro­pri­ated town money.

Hol­land Select­men James Wet­t­laufer, Earl John­son and Chris­t­ian Petersen appeared in court. Mr. Wet­t­laufer, the chair­man, told the judge Mr. Glea­son was “more dan­ger­ous” than the com­mon crim­i­nal because he was “an insider.” Mr. Wet­t­laufer said it would take years to gain back the public’s trust.

Mr. Glea­son had led a depart­ment of two full-time and five part-time officers.

Mr. Kring explained his client’s actions.

He said the only train­ing the high school-educated Mr. Glea­son had rel­a­tive to polic­ing was at the acad­emy, for which he paid $10,000 of his own money. Also, two fam­i­lies rely on him for finan­cial sup­port to sur­vive. He is a divorced father of two chil­dren in col­lege and has a 5-year-old daugh­ter for whom he pays support.

Mr. Kring said Mr. Glea­son openly cooperated.

“We’re here today to waive indict­ment on a DA’s com­plaint because he’s tried to coop­er­ate as fully as pos­si­ble. There are no excuses; he accepts respon­si­bil­ity for what he’s done,” Mr. Kring said.

Before Mr. Gleason’s res­ig­na­tion, he was hos­pi­tal­ized as a result of anx­i­ety, ten­sion and stress, Mr. Kring said. Since then he’s received coun­sel­ing and med­ica­tion for psy­cho­log­i­cal issues.

The lawyer said emer­gency treat­ment was sought for Mr. Glea­son about a month ago at Lawrence Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal, and he was sui­ci­dal. Mr. Kring did not describe Mr. Gleason’s med­ica­tion, but argued that Mr. Glea­son would not be able to receive it in the Ludlow-based house of correction.

Judge Velis said he needed fur­ther insight about the med­ical issue from pro­ba­tion and the dis­trict attorney’s office, and he deferred exe­cu­tion of the two-year sen­tence until Sept. 28.

Mr. Kring said Mr. Glea­son would never be a police offi­cer or in law enforce­ment again and was “an embar­rass­ment to his fam­ily.” Mr. Kring said Mr. Glea­son suf­fered immensely, and should.

Before sen­tenc­ing, the judge took a recess to read let­ters of sup­port for the for­mer chief. One writer said Mr. Glea­son had saved his life; another involved a case of a run­away child, with Mr. Glea­son suc­cess­fully intervening.

The judge acknowl­edged Mr. Gleason’s good deeds while in his old job, and said he didn’t doubt Mr. Glea­son is a good father. But the judge said he was com­pelled by the prosecutor’s mes­sage about the breach of trust.

It was indi­cated arrange­ments were made for resti­tu­tion to be made through the for­mer chief’s pension.

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