Brockton Official Arrested on Bribery Charge

BOSTON, MA—The Brockton Superintendent of Buildings was arrested today on federal charges that he received kickbacks from a contractor in exchange for his allowing the contractor to perform work for the City.

Acting United States Attorney Michael K. Loucks, Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division, and Susan Dukes, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Division, announced today that JOSEPH L. VASAPOLLO, JR., age 66, of 42 Gifford Street in Brockton, was charged in an indictment with three counts of extortion under color of official right and one count of bribery.

The indictment alleges that VASAPOLLO, who has served as Brockton’s Building Superintendent since 2003, hired a Norwood-based contractor to remove materials containing asbestos from the Brockton War Memorial Building, which the City of Brockton has been attempting to renovate into a performing arts center. VASAPOLLO directed the contractor to break the work up into multiple invoices under $5,000, so that he alone would be authorized to approve them without resorting to the City’s more formal bidding process. After the work was completed, VASAPOLLO approved the city’s payment of three invoices totaling approximately $15,000 to the contractor. In three secretly recorded meetings that took place in restaurant parking lots in Brockton, the contractor paid VASAPOLLO a total of $4,000 in kickbacks for his approval of the work. At the conclusion of one of the meetings, VASAPOLLO insisted that they continue the kickback arrangement with new asbestos removal projects, declaring that they should "keep the flow, and make a couple of bucks on the side."

If convicted on these charges, VASAPOLLO faces up to seventy years imprisonment, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and a $1,000,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan F. Mitchell.

The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.