A Suffolk County grand jury indicted a retired Boston Housing Court clerk on charges that he embezzled $240,000 from the accounts he managed until his departure in November 2006.
“This is a case of public corruption; plain and simple,” said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. “He is going to be held to account for his greed.”
Former First Assistant Clerk Magistrate Laurence B. Pierce, 68, of Malden faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on charges of larceny by continuous scheme and false entry into corporate books.
Conley recalls Pierce as the well-attired, prim-and-proper clerk whom he first encountered as a young lawyer.
But the indictment alleges Pierce skimmed heavily from two sets of housing court bank accounts from 2000 to 2006. First, he allegedly dipped into the escrow account holding disputed rent money for court litigants. When the money got too low to cover his own payouts, Pierce allegedly moved on to another account and cooked the books to cover his tracks, the indictment states.
“Evidence suggests he used these funds to pay his credit card bill, rents, utilities and legal gambling such as Keno, over several years,” Conley said.
Irregularities in a routine trial court audit in 2006 triggered a subsequent audit and investigation.
Pierce, whose annual state pension is $44,113, is scheduled to be arraigned April 18 in Suffolk Superior Court. He could not be reached for comment.
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