A toll taker accused of pocketing motorists’ cash at a Massachusetts Turnpike plaza pleaded guilty to all indicted charges today, making him the seventh of 10 such defendants to be convicted, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.
JUSTIN RUGGIERO (D.O.B. 6/10/81) of Bradford admitted to one count of larceny over $250 and 10 counts of false entry on corporate books rather than face trial later this year. Had the case proceeded to trial, members of Conley’s Special Prosecutions Unit were prepared to prove that Ruggiero stole more than $600 in tolls that should have gone to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Assistant District Attorney Edward Beagan, Conley’s chief of financial and white-collar prosecutions, recommended that Ruggiero serve six months in jail, pay $650 in restitution, submit to three years of probation, and perform 150 hours of community service. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frank Gaziano sentenced Ruggiero to two years of probation and ordered that he pay the $650 restitution.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is expected to terminate Ruggiero’s employment as a result of the conviction, Conley said.
“When a part-time toll taker can earn more in a year than a full-time prosecutor, this was obviously not a crime of financial necessity,” Conley said.
Ruggiero is one of four men to be indicted for larceny from a state tollbooth and the seventh to plead guilty in either Suffolk Superior Court or the Boston Municipal Court. One additional defendant –WAN CHEUNG of Randolph – is scheduled for trial in Superior Court in September, and charges against two others were temporarily withdrawn while prosecutors review newly-gathered evidence in their cases.
All 10 defendants were charged in June 2008 after what was then the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority learned of evidence that a number of toll takers had been intentionally miscounting or misclassifying vehicles passing through the plazas, collecting the appropriate sum, and then keeping all or a portion of the revenue for themselves.
