Press Release  Charlton Police Sergeant Steven Madelle pays $10,000 Civil Penalty for Violating Conflict of Interest Law

Boston, MA — Charlton Police Sergeant Steven Madelle has paid a $10,000 civil penalty for violating the conflict of interest law by using police resources to locate a person with whom he had a private relationship. Madelle signed a Disposition Agreement in which he admitted to the violations and waived his right to a hearing.

In June 2021, while off duty, Madelle called the Charlton Police Department and asked the dispatcher to ping a cell phone. In Massachusetts, a ping, or remote activation of a phone’s GPS capabilities to transmit its real-time location, may only be initiated by either a search warrant or a request from law enforcement under exigent circumstances. The circumstances were not exigent and Madelle did not tell the dispatcher that the phone belonged to a person with whom he had a private relationship. The dispatcher did as Madelle, their superior, requested and called the cell phone carrier. The cell phone carrier pinged the phone and obtained the phone’s location coordinates for the dispatcher and the dispatcher, in turn, provided them to Madelle with a map of the phone’s location.

Several hours after requesting the ping, Madelle again called the Charlton Police Department and asked a subordinate patrol officer to check the last time someone had “run” the license plate of the person with whom Madelle had a private relationship. Obtaining information on whether any police officers had recently “run” a license plate by searching for it in various databases accessible to police departments could potentially provide information about a vehicle’s location. The patrol officer informed Madelle the license plate had not recently been run.

The conflict of interest law prohibits public employees from using or attempting to use their official positions to obtain substantially valuable unwarranted privileges. Madelle violated this prohibition by asking subordinate Charlton Police Department employees to use police search tools, which are only for official use, for his private purposes. In addition, by requesting and receiving the results of the cell phone ping and information about the running of the plate from subordinate Charlton Police Department employees, Madelle violated the law’s prohibition against public employees receiving anything of substantial value, unless authorized by law or regulation, because of their official positions.

The Commission encourages public employees to contact the Commission’s Legal Division at 617-371-9500 for free advice if they have any questions regarding how the conflict of interest law may apply to them.

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