"County official pleads not guilty; Middlesex register is accused of theft" by Christopher Baxter, Globe Correspondent | August 8, 2008
CAMBRIDGE - The Middlesex County register of probate, who allegedly stole thousands of dollars from government copy machines, told arresting officers he was using the money to buy office supplies for the court, prosecutors said.
But John R. Buonomo said nothing during his arraignment yesterday in Cambridge District Court, standing silently with his hands clasped at his waist. His lawyer, Michael F. Natola, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Buonomo, first elected to his post in 2000, is accused of robbing cash machines attached to copiers at least 18 times since June in the Registry of Deeds office, which is in the same Cambridge Street building as his probate office. He was arrested Wednesday and faces 18 counts of breaking and entering into a depository, eight counts of theft of public property by a government officer, and eight counts of larceny under $250.
Police surveillance tapes show a jumpy and sometimes startled Buonomo crouching by the machines, his glasses pushed down on his nose as he licked his finger and counted the cash. Sometimes he flipped through the bills and returned them to the machines, while other times he would take an unspecified amount and slip it into his back pocket.
The 56-year-old Democrat from West Newton, whose salary is $110,220.65, has been placed on unpaid administrative leave by the Office of the Trial Court, said Charlotte Whiting, a spokeswoman for the Supreme Judicial Court.
WTF?
Detectives set up video surveillance and observed Buonomo routinely accessing the copiers during June, July, and this month, sometimes on his days off, Verner said. He removed "bills of undetermined denominations" and counted them or inspected the stack before returning the full amount to the machine, court documents state. On several occasions, Buonomo removed money and returned a portion to the copiers, putting the rest in his pocket, the complaint said.
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