Tompkins defended by attorney who has represented Karen Read and Jeffrey Epstein
UPDATE: On Wednesday, Aug. 27, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Gov. Maura Healey published a statement that Tompkins “agreed to step away from his position until the federal case against him is resolved.” His attorney also released a statement: “Sheriff Tompkins will use this time to meet the challenge resulting from a serious medical issue while he and I work to safeguard his freedom by preparing his defense to what we strongly contend is an unwarranted accusation.”
If you haven’t heard about the arrest of Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins for allegedly shaking down a Boston dispensary, then you must have been locked up these last few weeks. It’s a major story with a long tail and no shortage of resulting headlines, the latest coming from his first federal court appearance in Boston last week.
On Thursday, Tompkins pleaded not guilty to two counts of extortion. The Department of Justice charges that the sheriff leveraged his official support for a dispensary’s community impact program—a requirement for city and state licensing—to secure a prime position in a stock offering. Per the indictment, he then leaned on the business to return his initial investment after the stock tanked.
According to prosecutors, for those actions, he could be fined up to $250,000 per count, and faces up to 20 years in prison.
Outside the federal courthouse last week, the sheriff’s attorney Martin Weinberg said his client is a dedicated law enforcement official and was “charged with a crime he did not commit.” If that name rings a bell, it may be due to Weinberg previously representing heavyweights like Karen Read, infamous sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, and disgraced former Mass State Police union boss Dana Pullman.
Tompkins is scheduled to be back in court on Oct. 16. In the meantime, he stepped down from the Roxbury Community College board, while many of his fellow Democrats around the region have been slow to condemn him. Tompkins has enjoyed tight political symbiosis with leaders spanning Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to US Sen. Elizabeth Warren. As a result of those ties and his being labeled a so-called “sanctuary sheriff,” conservatives are barking mad, helping to further amplify the already outrageous story to bigger and bigger national audiences.
While the target of the sheriff’s alleged extortion is unnamed in the indictment, Talking Joints Memo was among the first to report that the identity of “Company A” appears to be Ascend Wellness Holdings (AWH), a New York-based multi-state operator with three retail locations in Mass including one in Boston’s North Station.
To be continued …
