Chief Arrested Amidst Scandal

A probation officer in Massachusetts has recently been arrested as well as charged with harassing a witness and intimidating that witness. He was arrested after an ongoing federal investigation took place amidst that scandal of the Probation Department, according to the Boston Globe.

Christopher Hoffman, who is 39 years of age, is the former officer who has been arrested. He has been running the probation office in Hampshire Superior Court for quite a while now. He was suspended from his position during the month of October. His arrest and charges are the first charges being made after the federal investigation of the department has taken place. It is believed that the department has rigged the system for hiring people which gave jobs to certain people who were connected in a specific way with other employees.

In fact, the scandal was so serious, the probation leadership resigned. The leadership consists of a number of people, including the ex-commissioner, John J. O’Brien who is now facing criminal charges against him from the state.

Christopher Hoffman, on the other hand, is now being accused of pressuring witness so that they wouldn’t cooperate with authorities. He has been charged with the intimidating a witness and could face up to 20 years in prison for such charges. Hoffman is also accused of telling a different probation officer, who was going to get interviewed by the FBI, that hey are a rat. In fact, his exact words were, “I’m going to tell everyone that you are a rat.” When contacted for a comment, Hoffman could not be reached.

The federal grand jury has head evidence surrounding the investigation for quite a few months. While evidence has been provided to the jury, the only one who was indicted federally, as of right now, is Christopher Hoffman. Hoffman has been on administrative leave since the end of October.

One of the independent counsels who investigated the Probation Department has said that O’Brien and some of the different deputies could have possibly made violations to the law by operating a hiring process that was not legitimate because candidates for the job were often chosen due to their connection with certain candidates. In attempts to make their process seem fair, they interviewed hundreds of people.

The main reason that Hoffman was placed at the center of the investigation is because something did not add up. For some odd reasons, Hoffman seems to rise at a rapid pace which made it seems as though favoritism was definitely going on. A report made by Globe Spotlight proved that O’Brien had already hired more than 250 people all of which had some sort of connection to him. Some of them were family, some friends, and politicians amongst other people.