After retiring in January, a Boston Police officer came under the scrutiny of the Massachusetts police oversight board for a series of disciplinary incidents over his two-decade career.
He left the department before he could be disciplined for two of the most recent violations. Though now retired, police oversight officials wanted to permanently revoke the officer’s license to work in law enforcement, preventing him from returning to the profession anywhere in the state.
Last month, they reached an agreement with the officer, Kirk Merricks, to do just that.
Retirement with two pending disciplinary counts and a lifetime ban from police work in Massachusetts does not preclude Merricks from receiving his $78,000-per-year pension, which he worked toward over nearly 25 years with the Boston Police.
Pension plans are retirement benefits, common in the public sector, made available through regular payments to retirees based on their salary, years of service and other factors.
Per state law, “pension forfeiture requires a criminal conviction,” Timothy J. Smyth, executive officer of the Boston Retirement System, told MassLive.
Merricks’ police career
Merricks, a Marine and Army National Guard veteran who served in Afghanistan, faced legal trouble in 2103, but not a conviction, according to the state Civil Service Commission.
He was arrested on charges of possessing TNT, grenades and other military-grade explosives at the Plymouth home he once shared with his estranged wife. Investigators said at the time that it was unclear why the items were at the suburban home, which, due to their destructive capacity, were not publicly available.
Boston Police officials dismissed Merricks in 2017, also citing his involvement in a domestic incident. A year later, the Civil Service Commission reversed the decision.
According to the commission, prosecutors dropped criminal charges in the explosives case after Merricks’ wife declined to testify. Finding issues with the internal investigation into Merricks’ conduct, the commission reduced his punishment from termination to a 10-day suspension.
With “no indication” that Merricks was convicted of a crime, Smyth said the Retirement Board would only consider revoking his pension if Boston’s police commissioner filed an internal charge for “misappropriation of funds or governmental property,” which had not happened.
Merricks retired on Jan. 31, Smyth said. His gross monthly benefit from the pension system — the amount paid out before any deductions — is just shy of $6,500.
Offered the chance to comment for this story, Merricks’ attorney, Keith J. Nicholson, declined. He referred a reporter to the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, and to the police department.
Larry Calderone, the union president, also declined to comment when asked about Merricks’ case and his pension last week. He sits on the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, or POST, the police oversight body that revoked Merricks’ law enforcement license, and said board members agree not to comment on matters concerning their work.
State Police officer pensions
Similar to the process at the city level to evaluate whether a police officer should forfeit their pension, state officials also consider the matter when a public employee is convicted of a crime.
If a state employee — a Massachusetts State Police trooper, for instance — were to face allegations of misconduct, they would need to be convicted and sentenced before the matter could come before the Massachusetts State Retirement Board, a spokesperson for the board said.
Among those who could soon see their pension eligibility reviewed by the board are three state troopers convicted of accepting bribes for passing grades on the state commercial driver’s license tests.
Mass. State Police Sgt. Gary Cederquist leaves U.S. District Court in Boston, Jan. 30, 2024. Cederquist was convicted of allowing unqualified applicants to pass the commercial driver’s license test in exchange for bribes.(Will Katcher/MassLive)
Two of the troopers — Calvin Butner and Perry Mendes — pleaded guilty to charges connected to the case. A third, Gary Cederquist, who faced the bulk of the charges tied to the case, was found guilty by a jury in federal court last month. They are due to be sentenced in July.
The retirement board will then initiate an involved process with the troopers’ pensions at stake. Yet even if the troopers forfeit their pensions, they are still due some funds.
The process begins with the board voting whether to refer the matter to a hearing officer for review.
The state and the public employee, with a lawyer present, would then have opportunities to make their case for whether or not the conduct at issue is “factually or legally” connected to their job, the board spokesperson said.
The hearing officer will submit factual findings and recommendations to the board. If the hearing officer finds a legal or factual link between the employee’s misconduct and their position, the board can vote for the person to forfeit their pension.
Still, the employee would receive some money. The accumulated deductions from their paychecks are returned, though they lose any interest earned on the funds. Depending on whether and when they retired, the board may be able to recover any money already paid out that exceeded their accumulated deductions, the spokesperson said.
As with Merricks’ case, a state trooper or other state employee does not forfeit their pension for retiring or resigning while under internal investigation. Nor does decertification by the POST Commission lead to a trooper forfeiting their pension.
A fourth state trooper snared in the commercial driver’s license bribery case, Joel Rogers, has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, court records show.
He faces a single count of conspiracy to falsify records. The agreement itself is sealed, meaning withheld from public view, but court filings indicate that prosecutors intend to drop the charge should Rogers adhere to certain conditions.
As such, he may yet keep his pension.
