BOSTON
A Boston Police officer and former treasurer of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association was charged Thursday with making a false statement to the FBI in connection with his cash loans to a drug dealer, official said.
David Michael Fitzgerald, 49, who resides in Milton, was charged with one count of making a false statement to the FBI.
Fitzgerald is facing up to five years in prison, officials said.
Fitzgerald also entered into a plea agreement filed Thursday which states that he agreed to resign his position as a Boston Police officer, according to authorities.
The veteran Boston police officer loaned money to a street-level drug dealer and bookmaker, authorities said.
US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s office will recommend a sentence of one year of probation in exchange for his guilty plea in US District Court in Boston, legal filings show, according to the Boston Globe newspaper.
Officials stated that Fitzgerald has been a Boston Police Department police officer since 1996 and was the treasurer of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association from 2012 to 2014.
Fitzgerald is the brother of Boston police Superintendent Paul Fitzgerald, who is assigned to the Bureau of Intelligence and Analysis. David Fitzgerald has been on paid leave since May while the investigation progressed, the Boston Globe reported.
According to court documents, this is what happened:
Fitzgerald developed a relationship with an individual who was a known street-level drug dealer and bookmaker.
During the course of this relationship, Fitzgerald made cash loans to the individual, which were paid back in weekly installments.
On April 27, 2015, Fitzgerald met the individual in Watertown in order to collect a $500 cash installment for one of the outstanding loans.
Later that same day, when federal agents who were investigating the matter questioned Fitzgerald, he falsely stated that the purpose of his meeting with the individual was simply social in nature and that he had never loaned money to the individual.
Not only were these statements untrue, but they were intended to interfere with an ongoing federal investigation.