Press Release  AG Healey Indicts Former State Employee for Overtime Abuse

Boston — A former state employee at the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services has been indicted in connection with a scheme to falsely claim hundreds of hours of overtime that she did not work, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today.

Katelynn Sullivan, 33, of Lowell, was indicted today by a Suffolk County Special Grand Jury on Larceny over $250 (1 count) and False Claims (1 count). She will be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on February 4.

The AG’s Office alleges that from July 2015 through March 2017, Sullivan was paid for 1,428 hours of overtime that she did not perform. Sullivan was an employee at a group home for adults with intellectual disabilities that is owned and operated by the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS). 

The employees of the home are DDS employees, and they are paid by the Commonwealth. During the time that this alleged fraud occurred, employees were required to document the date, time, hours, and reason for the overtime on a handwritten log kept in the home. That information would then be approved and entered into an online payroll platform by the house manager.

The AG’s Office alleges that Sullivan would, on her own and without authorization, enter hours that she did not work into that online payroll system. As a result of these alleged false entries, Sullivan was paid over $42,500. The Office of the Inspector General received a complaint on their Fight Fraud hotline regarding this matter. DDS subsequently conducted an investigation and referred the matter to the Attorney General's Office.

These charges are allegations, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.        

This case is being handled by Assistant Attorney General Sara Yoffe of the AG’s Office White Collar and Public Integrity Division, with assistance from Lead Investigator Logan Davis and the Bureau of Program Integrity of the Massachusetts Inspector General’s Office and Victim Witness Advocate Ellen Davis. The Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Developmental Services provided invaluable assistance in this investigation.

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