Somerville rescinds Buonomo's pension after guilty plea
The City of Somerville has rescinded the $3,200 a month pension of John Buonomo, a former Middlesex Register of Probate who awaits sentencing on charges he stole cash from state copy machines and his own campaign fund.
Buonomo, 57, who previously served on the Somerville School Committee and Board of Aldermen, is appealing the city of Somerville Retirement Board's decision to rescind his pension.
The Somerville board voted three weeks ago to rescind Buonomo's pension, which comes to $3,228.07 per month. The board must hear his appeal by Nov. 28. A hearing date has not been set.
The board's vote came shortly after Buonomo pleaded guilty to stealing about $130,000 from his campaign fund and from copy machines at the Office of the Register of Deeds in Cambridge. He served as Register of Probate for Middlesex County from 2000 until September of last year, stepping down one month after his arrest.
Nicholas Poser, Buonomo's attorney in the pension matter, claims the board has overreached.
"The bottom line is that as much trouble as John Buonomo has gotten himself into, it has nothing to do with the pension he's being paid by the city of Somerville," Poser said.
He added that while Buonomo is not drawing a pension for his service as Register, he began receiving his city pension in January of 2000, about 11 months before he was elected to state office.
In a statement, the board cited a section of state law that bars officials from receiving pensions upon conviction of stealing public funds "applicable to his office or position."
Not only do the charges relate to an office outside the city's jurisdiction, Poser said, but Buonomo technically pleaded guilty to stealing from a private vendor - which owns the copy machines and gives a large portion of the money back to the state - and his campaign fund, meaning no public funds were directly stolen.
"When the smoke clears and the [city] Retirement Board takes a careful look at the whole thing, I think they'll find that they should do nothing else but continue to pay his pension," Poser said, noting that Buonomo devotes the entire check each month to child support payments.
Buonomo is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 18 in Middlesex County Superior Court in Woburn. His attorney Michael Natola said prosecutors are seeking a sentence of up to six years.
At least a dozen of Buonomo's supporters have written letters to Judge Bruce Henry to plead for leniency, according to Natola.
"There is no [plea] deal at all," he said. "It is entirely in the hands of the judge."
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