< Back to front page Text size – +

Stoughton school board member arrested in corruption case

E-mail|Link|Comments () January 13, 2010 11:32 AM

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

A Stoughton school committee member and recently retired town police detective was arrested Tuesday night on public corruption charges as part of a federal investigation of the police department, according to law enforcement authorities.

Anthony Bickerton, who abruptly resigned from the Police Department in September after 30 years on the force, is scheduled to appear in US District Court at noon. He is facing charges that he lied to FBI agents looking into corruption.

Bickerton was charged as part of an investigation that prompted Arlindo Romeiro, another former Stoughton detective, to plead guilty last Wednesday in federal court of lying to FBI agents. Romeiro promised to cooperate with authorities in the probe and has not been sentenced yet.

Three people who are familiar with the investigation and who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Globe in September that a longtime informant for former detective Bickerton began cooperating with authorities after the informant was arrested on a number of charges. The informant has a lengthy criminal record that includes arrests for drugs, burglary, forgery, and assault and battery.

Joseph F. Krowski Sr., a Brockton lawyer with whom Bickerton has been consulting, said last week that Bickerton has done nothing wrong and retired at least partly because of the atmosphere in the scandal-plagued department.

"As you know, there's been a lot of pressure on a lot of cops who did nothing wrong but got caught up in this antipolice maelstrom in Stoughton, and a lot of guys have just had it," Krowski said.

Last week, Kelly declined to say whether the corruption investigation is widening. Krowski said he believes that it is and that authorities will use Romeiro's cooperation to target higher-ups.

"I guess they call it the ladder technique," Krowski said.

The Stoughton police force has been in turmoil for years and has not had a permanent chief since March 2005, when Chief Manuel J. Cachopa was placed on administrative leave following his indictment on charges of being an accessory to attempted extortion. Last January he was convicted of the charge, which stemmed from allegations that he tried to hinder an investigation into whether Sergeant David Cohen abused his authority in 2002 while attempting to collect a debt from a local businessman.

Cachopa was placed on probation. Cohen, who was convicted of attempted extortion and witness intimidation in 2007, was sentenced to two years in prison. But the Supreme Judicial Court threw out his conviction last week.

Last February, a Stoughton supervisor of detectives who was removed from his post in 2005 won a federal lawsuit against the town after arguing that his demotion was retaliation for his helping to investigate misconduct by Cachopa and Cohen. The plaintiff, Robert J. Welch, was awarded more than $165,000 at the trial and got his job back.

Hillary A. Schwab, a Boston lawyer who represented Welch, said last week that she believes that "the Police Department is broken."