IAPE Evidence Blog

Patch.org, Marl­bor­ough­Patch, marlborough.patch.com
BYLINE: Josh Gray,
Link to Article

Marl­bor­ough, MA

Credit Josh Gray

Det. Derek John­son con­fessed to steal­ing money from the Marl­bor­ough evi­dence room.

City offi­cials have revealed that a long­time Marl­bor­ough police detec­tive has been caught after steal­ing thou­sands of dol­lars from the department’s evi­dence room, accord­ing to a recent WHDH Chan­nel 7 report. 

Det. Derek John­son, a 24-year vet­eran of the force, has con­fessed to steal­ing more than $8,000 related to at least 10 pend­ing cases, accord­ing to the Mid­dle­sex Dis­trict Attorney’s office. 

John­son, who was the offi­cer in charge of the evi­dence room, has been given a deal in exchange for his con­fes­sion, revealed the “Hank Inves­ti­gates,” seg­ment Thurs­day evening. He was allowed to leave the force, cash out a $112,000 pen­sion and return the stolen funds. As part of the deal, he will not be pros­e­cuted for his crimes. 

When asked if the for­mer detec­tive got off easy, Chief Mark Leonard said to WHDH, “Absolutely not. He’s no longer a police offi­cer, the city was made whole, he’s not draw­ing a pen­sion for the rest of his life. If he were pros­e­cuted crim­i­nally and we were not suc­cess­ful, he very well could have come back to work here!”

First-time mayor and long­time city coun­cil mem­ber Arthur Vigeant stood by Leonard’s decision. 

“The num­ber one issue was try­ing to find out exactly who was involved; there was only one offi­cer involved, and he’s been purged from the depart­ment,” Vigeant said to WHDH.

As a result of Johnson’s actions, sev­eral pend­ing cases are com­pro­mised due to the miss­ing and tam­pered with evidence. 

Do you think the chief made the right deci­sion by offer­ing John­son a deal? Do you agree with the mayor — Is the city bet­ter off for it? Vote in the poll and tell us what you think in the com­ment field.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org