The Sheriff's Sketchy Non-Profit For Shakedowns
“It’s Time For The Chaos To Stop”
Today we’re looking at a local institution I almost never write about: the sheriff. Asking such questions as: What is a county sheriff? What does it do? Why does it exist? What function does it serve that doesn’t have an obvious redundancy? Why does it have a non-profit shell corporation for civil processing? What are the $2 million in “entitlement programs” getting drawn down of the payroll account every year? Why does city councilor Kate Toomey have a unique position title and pay scale in the sheriff’s office? Why is a sheriff’s office employee chairing the closest thing this city has to a police oversight board? Why does the sheriff give money from its non-profit straight to the gang unit?
I didn’t plan to focus on the sheriff when I started putting together this post, but what I thought was a throw-away Bleet “did numbers” so there’s more interest in ‘ol Lew’s domain than I might have thought?
Or Bluesky has a bot problem.
Freshly back from a wedding this past weekend, which was lovely but delayed the posting of this here post. Luckily, things are starting to move slow, as they do in the summer, and so you and I didn’t miss a whole lot from Friday to now.
Also for what it’s worth, I believe I am the first Worcester reporter to write about the sheriff’s office report in question, despite it being out for more than a week now... For instance, just to check, I ran a search on the Telegram site, and found their last article on the sheriff was about how they’re “partnering with Amazon” to combat “porch piracy” (Again, side note: whyyyyy is the sheriff involved in low level property crime at all?). The Worcester Guardian’s last two sheriff stories are, I shit you not, “Deadline Nears For Senior Picnic” and “14 Deputies to Graduate.” Sheesh!
The lack of attention to this report is a weird, almost sketchy omission on behalf of the rest of the local press I’m happy to be correcting. A great time to add the subscriber plug. Right here, what you have open on your device right now, is Worcester news you literally cannot get anywhere else.
Subscriptions have been down off late, a fact that makes me real nervous as the time of “a lot of annual renewals all at once” approaches. I’m going to start my customary half-off-for-a-year deal early.
Also tips and merch orders are great!
I’ve been down on this whole newsletter thing and my ability to do it well the past couple days, feeling as though I’ve “lost the sauce” or am in danger of doing so. That feeling was temporarily assuaged when a mailman careening past me on my little walk to the store tooted his horn and told me to “keep giving em hell.” Then Shaun Connolly brought it right back with his Horrorscopes entry for Gemini (yes I’m one of those) this afternoon...
Gemini- There is a whole different galaxy that is requesting your presence. The current stars and planets are encouraging you to go and explore new space. They are sort of sick of you.
Utterly devastating.
The lead up to the anniversary is always a busy busy time for “back end” work [Cue Rodney Dangerfield wife joke]. This year especially, as we are still on track to complete a transfer from Substack to Ghost either by or shortly after the anniversary. Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the party on the 20th! It’s the same day as the Heavy Metal Parking Lot at Ralph’s in the afternoon. So go to that then come unwind at Steel & Wire with the Worcester Sucks crew. Sounds like a nice as hell Worcester day! Details via the Instagram, which you should follow if you aren’t already.
Some other stuff coming up...
In the “fun and cool” category we have the “Make. It. Werk.” drag competition by Love Your Labels on Thursday night.
In the opposite category, city manager’s state of the city next week, June 17, the day after my birthday, so I’ll be good and hung over for it.
Burncoat High “visioning” session on the 16th. Will for sure be skipping that.
Tonight the city council was expected to vote on the $1 billion budget “proposal” from the city manager, ending the two-month charade of a review. But right at the beginning of the meeting, which started at 5 p.m., Petty tried to ram through a quick vote on the budget. King held the items, pushing the vote to next week. Tony Economou then motioned to start the meeting next week at 4 p.m., over the objection of King, who said he has work til 5. This all but ensures, as was obviously Economou’s design, that the budget will be voted through without King present. King’s the most likely councilor to try to move some money around, making Economou’s motion even smarmier. But if my Motions on the budget tend to be made at the last meeting of the budget review process, if they’re made at all. They usually fail, and they are usually put on the table by people who know they’ll fail, but want to make a point, like Konnie Lukes did with her motion to cut the horsey cop unit way back in like 2018—still among the coolest moves I’ve seen a councilor pull. It of course failed, but so did the mounted patrol, shuttered as it was by the police department just a few years later, so...
Here’s a link to a hosted version of the agenda, a dead simple thing to do that for some reason the city can’t or won’t do anymore, creating cluttered messes of the download folders of anyone who tries to pay attention. I have a public drive folder for Worcester Sucks supporting documents now, which is a good practice for a journalist to get in the habit of, so thanks, PrimeGov.
The meeting started at 5 p.m. to accommodate the insane backlog of items from last week’s meeting, which went to midnight without getting to even half of the business. So on top of the budget, there are basically two meeting’s worth of items that will invariably get short-shrifted or pushed off to the next one. Such is life with Joe Petty as chair. The agenda is an insane 40 page document with an arcane system of highlighting that explains how the June 2 and June 9 meetings will be combined I think. I cannot bring myself to sort through it at the moment.
More on the council’s endless shenanigans next post. For now, let’s head down the street to the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s Time For The Chaos To Stop”
In season six of the Sopranos Tony’s just gotten out of a coma to find he’s no longer the nominal employee of a waste management consultancy company where he’d been an employee on paper for the entirety of the series up until that point. “I need that W-2,” he says. A throwaway line, perhaps, but one that stuck with for the way it implies a criminality both baked into and obscured by formal bureaucracies. Barron Waste Management Consultants is only over winked at throughout the show, leaving the viewer to assume, but never fully know, it’s a mostly fake formal bureaucratic structure there to lend cover to Tony and everyone under him—a way to move the money made in the “real” business to and from the formal world.
In another moment, earlier in the show, Season 1 I think, Tony flashes his membership card to the local police union at a cop who’d pulled him over for speeding. He is incensed when the move doesn’t work, and he uses his informal power in the law enforcement community to get the cop fired.
Another smart bit of writing, showing rather telling, a provocative yet subtle glimpse at the porous relationship between legal and illegal institutions. You’re left to wonder how he got that union card, and who else has one. Same goes for the W-2.
It occurred to me, digging into a new report from the inspector general about the sketchy accounting practices of sheriff’s offices across the state—Worcester being a noted standout—that I know just as little about what a sheriff’s deputy actually does as I do a waste management consultant. And the more I learned about it, in the process of putting this piece together, the more it looked like good old fashion shaking people down comprises a lot of “the work.” Something to think about as we dig into the specifics.
In the June 1 summary letter of the report, titled “Final Report on Sheriffs’
Budgets and Expenditures,” Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro writes:
How we got to this point no longer matters. Sheriffs’ offices have been Commonwealth agencies for more than 25 years. It is time for the chaos to stop.
Right off the bat this report confirms my long-held belief that no one knows what exact a sheriff is. People can point to specific things that a sheriff’s office does, but ask why it is that the sheriff does that thing, rather than some other seemingly more suited, previously existing agency, and it starts to get messy.
At the heart of the chaos is the lack of a common understanding of the role of the sheriffs’ offices. That understanding varies from sheriff to sheriff and legislator to legislator. What is abundantly clear is that their role is not as narrow as some legislative leaders expect, nor as expansive as some sheriffs believe.
Not even the sheriffs are entirely sure of what it is they do! All of them, it turns out, do it a bit different. In each of their sheriff’s hearts they hold their bespoke sheriff’s dreams. This, naturally, leads to a rogues gallery of overreach and corruption, which is perhaps the point. A way for the diffuse “law enforcement community” populating the exurbs and frequenting the dealerships to spread out from municipal police departments, court security and corrections into new terrains. Sheriff’s offices as we known them in Massachusetts are younger than many, probably most, of the people reading this. The Worcester County Sheriff is a bit of an exception. It’s actually the oldest law enforcement agency in the country, stretching back to the 1700s, a fact which lends it a certain Eldritch quality I think. It was primarily responsible for keeping the jail going. But in 1998, a new state law abolishing county government formations (mistake) turned the WCSO into a state agency, rather than a county authority, untethering it, subtly, from its original mandate. For some reason, or set of reasons, all of which I’m sure were totally above board, the office was kept an elected position, not by statewide vote but by the same county precincts and wards that kept sheriffs in office prior. Keeping it an elected position all but preserved the political reality of the sheriff as a county authority, but its new designation as a state agency also gave it additional wiggle room to explore new revenue streams. Cherry meets Sundae.
For as long as I’ve been aware of a Worcester Sheriff, Lew Evangelidis has been him. Lew is a powerful Republican overseeing a large patronage network, and he’s tall, two facts that, when combined, make him a shoe-in for governor if and when he tries. He lives in Holden, giving him the built in narrative of fighting “overreach” (forcing rich towns to allow apartments). He’s also the most serious threat to Joe Early’s dominion over the District Attorney’s Office, another definitely-not-county-wide-authority, a political reality which reliably keeps the DA more “tough on crime” than he should or has to be. Conveniently, that means a reliably full house of corrections for Lew. Running the West Boylston jail is the primary job of our sheriff. But that’s not what the inspector general’s report focuses on. Instead, it turns, where it turns to Worcester in its 190-or-so pages, to the civil processing arm—what we usually call “serving papers” and the uniquely corrupt way that the WCSO goes about it.
Lew’s office is the only sheriff’s office in the state, per the report, to do this one weird trick: form a non-profit corporation for a specific function of your agency that happens to collect fees for service, name it the exact same thing as the sub-department responsible for collecting those fees, staff the non-profit with the same people already in the sub-department, put that fee money into the financial structure of the non-profit, where it becomes a much more loosey-goosey pile of cash. Spend that money on a vague bulk line item every year titled “entitlement programs” which could be anything, really. And that’s how you get The Worcester County Sheriff Civil Process Division, Inc.
Per the inspector general, $42 million sits in private bank accounts held by sheriff’s offices across the state. Of that, the WCSO accounts for $2.7 million. A state law requires that 50 percent of civil process fees collected be remitted to the general fund. In FY 25, the WCSO collected $1.2 million and remitted precisely zero dollars.
In a sub-section dedicated to this practice, unique to Worcester, the inspector general is rather direct in his assessment.
It is the position of the OIG that it is wholly inappropriate for a state agency to establish a shadow private entity to perform its statutory responsibilities and collect revenue owed to the state. In addition to being legally questionable, it blurs the line between public and private funds
One of the recommendations for immediate resolution is dissolving this non-profit entirely.
Logistically, this arrangement is unnecessarily confusing, reduces transparency, and creates unnecessary risk of fraud, waste, and abuse of funds that would not be present if the agency simply performed these duties with its own staff and retained revenue in its normal operating accounts
This next paragraph is worth a careful read.
Worcester County Sheriff Civil Process Division, Inc., was incorporated in 2011 “to operate in accordance with Chapter 262 of the General Laws of the Commonwealth regarding the serving of summons, warrants, subpoenas, and other legal procedures requiring legal notification.” The articles of organization demonstrate a purpose beyond merely fulfilling this statutory duty, stating “the corporation shall serve as a supporting organization for the Worcester County House of Correction and it shall create, sponsor, promote, and conduct partnerships and programs in the areas of law enforcement and public safety in Worcester County as well as providing resources to support such programs and all other charitable, educational, and community purposes.”
Interesting!
Worcester County Sheriff accounted for $3 million of the $43 million in revenues and expenditures found to be off the books.
Can’t make this stuff up: the expenditures were labeled “entitlement programs.”
Entitlement programs could mean many things but here are some of the things they might mean for people who work for the sheriff, from the office’s employee benefit page: an “Annual Education Stipend” from $1,000 for an associates degree to $2,500 for a master’s; sick time buyback; quarterly bonus personal days; and my favorite, a perk just called “longevity,” like it’s a Magic The Gathering card, “After five years of service will receive additional longevity bi-weekly payment.” A reward for good soldiers in the “Tony Soprano” sense, perhaps.
And, just like ICE, the office offers student loan forgiveness.
The civil process work is the handling of any civil suit paper, be it against an individual or a company, but also a ton of other things, including eviction notices and repossessions.
On their dedicated website for civil process, the sheriff makes it pretty clear what people are paying for...
... big gun.
The office—or rather, the non-profit?—charges a fee for each document served. You have to call to get a quote, there are no prices listed on the website. But you can imagine, with all the eviction proceedings going on amid our housing crisis, that the fees start to add up quick. There’s the initial letter, then the 48 hour notice, etc etc.
I’d bet money the office that suggested the following quote is the Worcester office...
Of concern, one office suggested to the OIG that typical controls need not apply because funds derived from civil process revenue are “not taxpayer money.”
They also provide a boutique “capias” service, which seems to mean physical arrests of debtors, ordered and paid for by whoever fills out the form. I’ve never heard the term before and I’m honestly not too sure about how that works. But a fee for service is one of four things people need to provide to order a “capias.” This is somehow not the top line item but rather a footnote in mafia-like behavior of the sheriff’s department.
Another factoid of note from the report—totally unrelated to the previously mentioned fact the sheriff’s non-profit funds partnerships and programs with other law enforcement—the WCSO participates in some way in the WPD’s gang unit, one of two plainclothes units basically solely responsible for the DOJ’s decision to investigate the WPD. I would never allege the two facts—that the sheriff hides money from the state in a non-profit that supports law enforcement partnerships and the WSCO partners with the WPD’s gang unit—are related and so I cannot be sued. There is no formal memorandum of understanding outlining the scope of that collaboration, a fact which troubles the inspector general.
Operating without an MOU puts sheriffs’ offices at risk of liability in the event that one of their officers or a member of the public is injured or in the event of property damage. Proper MOUs should outline liability responsibility, time reporting compliance, equipment or vehicle usage restrictions, recordkeeping responsibilities, and any fees or reimbursements associated with the activity.
So I guess we’ll never know for sure! Must have been a clerical error, that lack of MOU...
A third totally unrelated fact: WCSO made two transfers from its public account June 2024 and April 2025 totaling $3.5 million, both labeled “Entitlement Programs.” This information is included in the report to support the conclusion that sheriffs operate their public accounts on a deficit, using them for their biggest expenses, like payroll, while using their private accounts for other uhhhh programs they may feel entitled to. * A neat accounting trick.
In other instances, transferred funds are spent on discretionary activities. Without a record of when and why funds are transferred from payroll, the deficit appears as solely a payroll problem, without identifying the true deficit drivers.
A fourth completely and totally unrelated fact: a WCSO employee sits on the city council, and, moreover, serves as chairwoman of the Standing Committee on Public Safety, the primary vehicle for police oversight in the city’s government structure, though it isn’t, under Chairwoman Kate Toomey, used that way. Under Toomey, the Standing Committee on Public Safety has taken the official stance it can’t actually oversee the police department, thus exempting an examination into, say, Sheriff’s Office money forked over to the gang unit without an MOU. That’s outside their purview, they’d say, they being Toomey and her longtime colleague Moe Bergman, who control the three-seat board with their two votes, and who are both vocally on record as against a civilian review board. Toomey is a reentry specialist in Lew Evangelidis’ sheriff department, where she has both a unique position title and pay grade, according to a spreadsheet of 2025 payroll data posted by MassLive. A $3200 stipend in the “other pay” category brings her $75,000 base salary to $78,000, a figure $10,000 more than any other reentry councilor or reintegration specialist. She’s worked there since February, 2022. She was chairwoman of the standing committee on public safety when she started and has remained there ever since.
Toomey just tonight supported Tony Economou’s motion to start the next meeting and, we can infer, vote through the budget, an hour before Khrystian King can attend. Bravely and in a self-sacrificing fashion, Toomey announced, unprompted, that she also has work next Tuesday as well, but she, unlike King, will “take the time off.”
Is that really taking time off for Toomey? Getting to the city council meeting that starts early so the one police critic on the board cannot make any motions to alter the budget before the council votes it through?
Kate, the sheriff should be paying you time and a half for that.
Odds and Ends
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Congratulations to Bryan O’Donnell, the newest member of the Power 100 Club. This, I know from experience, means Bryan will promptly receive a vague invitation to attend a soirée of sorts in the basement of the Worcester Club, where, as a doctor, he’ll be called upon to assist the drug-addled concubine of a wealthy benefactor. From there, questions will beget more questions, masks will go missing, he will be followed, he will read things in the newspaper he cannot fully explain, his wife will become a worrying amount of horny, he will be drawn ever back to the basement… he’ll find out the real ending, how much it has to do with pee… and this will cause him to switch allegiances from director to studio c-suite—say to himself, Yeah, no, that was a good cut actually. They were right to do that.
Love this answer Bryan gave the WBJ on the questionnaire:
Why do you do business in Central Mass.? Growing up in the honest, if baffling, weirdness of Worcester makes everywhere else seem phony. No other city will do.
While we’re talking about power players, anyone know what News Talk New England’s whole deal is? The header picture makes me think AI.
And I came upon it via a strange story that feels like it was written by AI. However, on further investigation, there’s a few videos on the Facebook page that also feel like AI but they just can’t be, right? You can’t have an AI man-on-the-street interview with Worcester Housing Authority CEO Alex Corrales. That is too weird and specific.
…Right?
Ok that’s enough from me. There’s plenty of other stuff to report on, including the WHA’s new “affordable” development partnership with Trinity Financial. But we’ll save that for later in the week.
Two quick plugs for good stuff:
“Margo’s Got Money Troubles” on Apple TV is hilarious and well written and well performed. Bravo.
Marisa Anderson is a guitar player’s guitar player’s guitar player you feel me?
Frankly, this is a tour-de-force.
Big gun made me laugh aloud in the barbershop