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The New Bedford Retirement Board this week requested materials from the city in order to review an allegation of financial misconduct by a retired police officer who is receiving a pension from the system.
Sgt. Samuel Ortega was investigated last year in response to allegations of sexual harassment and financial misconduct over a $200 department donation that he allegedly deposited into his wife’s bank account. Many of the harassment complaints were sustained, but based on responses from the New Bedford Police Department and the Bristol County District Attorney’s office, it seems no one investigated the alleged financial misconduct.
Misappropriation of funds, which is a crime, can disqualify a police officer from receiving a pension. The executive director of the area’s retirement board, which administers pensions, said that the office and five-member board were never informed about this allegation and only learned of it from a New Bedford Light investigation.
The board “was never provided with any information regarding potential misappropriation of funds nor any other employment-related actions that would have prompted further review,” Eric Cohen, executive director of the retirement board, which is a separate entity from the city, said in an email to The Light. “I thank you for sharing what you recently obtained from the City of New Bedford.”
Upon receiving the requested materials on Ortega, Cohen said the board will undertake a review to determine if further action is needed, which could include an evidentiary hearing on the matter.
The 2024 investigation, for which the city paid an outside firm $31,000, said Ortega claimed the funds were “circled back” to the department. But a police spokesperson last week said she was unable to confirm whether the funds were returned.
Retirement application
In March 2024, Ortega applied for disability retirement, per the police department.
As part of the application, the board requires a statement from the applicant’s employer. The document explicitly asks whether the employee has been “officially investigated for or charged with misappropriation of funds” from his or her employer.
In a document signed by then-Police Chief Paul Oliveira under the penalties of perjury, the department ticked the “no” box. The signature is dated March 18, 2024, nearly one month after Oliveira referred the $200-check matter to the DA’s office, and months after the internal affairs unit opened an investigation in response to the financial misconduct and harassment allegations.
Ortega also checked the “no” box in his own submission form, dated March 2024, per records provided by the retirement board.
The investigation’s findings were submitted in August 2024 to then-Chief Oliveira, about one month before the retirement board approved Ortega’s application. With the exception of one employee, interviewed a second time in June, the investigator had interviewed all witnesses for the investigation by March 2024, the same month Ortega applied for disability retirement.
With the information provided by Ortega and the police department in their submitted forms, the retirement board in September approved his application after review by a medical panel. It took effect in November.
In a response to a request for comment, the city’s public information officer emailed a statement from Ryan Pavao, acting first assistant city solicitor. The email defended the employer form submitted by Oliveira and NBPD.
“Question 11 of the form reads as follows: ‘Has the employee been officially investigated for or charged with misappropriation of funds from his/her employer or convicted of any crime related to his/her office or position?’ [italics added],” Pavao wrote.
“The box was correctly checked ‘no.’ Sgt. Ortega was not under investigation for misappropriating funds from his employer at the time of his application and the Police Department’s submission,” Pavao said, again adding italics. “The allegation of improper conduct which has arisen pertains to $200 in funds from a private citizen, not public funds associated with the City of New Bedford as his employer. As you know, this allegation has been forwarded to the Office of the District Attorney.”
The DA’s office last week said NBPD “consulted with the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office in late February 2024, only as a potential resource should further assistance be necessary” and that NBPD “handled the matter.”
NBPD spokesperson Holly Huntoon on Wednesday said that Acting Chief Derek Belong had not heard from the DA’s Office since he also referred the Ortega matter to the office a few weeks ago.
It is unclear what Ortega listed for his medical leave and disability. Under state law, medical information is generally exempt from public disclosure. The records provided by the retirement board were redacted to comport with said laws.
Under Massachusetts law, police officers may lose their pension if they are charged with or found guilty of misappropriating funds. Misappropriation, or embezzlement, can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor or felony and is punishable by fines or jail time.
However, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that pension forfeiture violates Eighth Amendment rights if the amount forfeited is “grossly disproportionate” to the crime. Since his retirement in November, Ortega, 48, has received about $42,000 in pension payments as of last month.
Pavao said the city intends to provide the board with the requested records.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
A $34,000 investigation over a $200 check?
Stopping illegal acts has to start somewhere.