The retired Worcester County judge accused of misconduct in office has settled the matter by paying a fine and accepting a guilty verdict.
A civil complaint filed by state prosecutors in July alleged Gerald V. Purnell, 69, knew that longtime law clerk Bridget Lowrie, over a four-year period, had falsely claimed on timesheets to have worked 40 hours a week while still collecting a full salary.
Lowrie, 46, also was cited for misconduct. She quit last summer after the allegations surfaced, court documents say.
So they pay $ 10,000 each as a fine but the salary she made from double-dipping was nearly $ 500k. It sounds like fraud to me, but judge Purnell agreed to let her do it, so I guess that taxpayers are on the hook. She got away with it for years. Explain how that is fair to the taxpayers?