May 23, 2010 | Spotlight Report - Part 1
John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Over the course of 23 years, Jack O’Brien transformed the Probation Department from a national pioneer into an organization that functions more like a private employment agency for the well connected.
July 25, 2010 | Spotlight Follow-up
The independent counsel investigating the Massachusetts Probation Department has found strong evidence that suspended commissioner John J. O’Brien manipulated his agency’s hiring and promotion process to advance applicants with insider support.
July 25, 2010 | Spotlight Report
The troubles at the state Probation Department go way beyond patronage. Key programs have gone astray, with bloated budgets and indifferent management; caseload reports are wildly exaggerated; and a culture of secrecy has enveloped it all.
Ex-probation chief sentenced as system decried
John O’Brien was sentenced after being convicted of running the department like a criminal enterprise.
3 guilty in probation corruption case
A sweeping verdict found that former chief John O’Brien ran the Probation Department like a criminal enterprise.
Victims of corruption in the Probation Department reacted with relief and elation.
The House speaker himself was never charged, but prosecutors had argued in the trial that he joined in John O’Brien’s conspiracy.
Outside the Senate chamber, senators insisted they had to be somewhere else, had not read the verdict, or were busy with other business.
Thomas Farragher
The spectacular collapse of Jack O’Brien
Just because all your friends were handing out jobs, commissioner, didn’t make it right. In fact, the jury said, it was a broad criminal enterprise.
The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in 2002 has spawned the movie “Spotlight.” Go inside previous reports from the Globe’s Spotlight team.
On May 23, 2010, the Globe Spotlight Team published the first in a series of reports about rampant patronage hiring in the state's Probation Department. The reports led to a criminal investigation. Top officials have been convicted of mail fraud, racketeering and conspiracy.
As politicians and employees continue to be called to testify in the scandal, Mass. lawmakers are concerned the threat of indictments will hang over Beacon Hill next year.
The state’s highest court embraced special counsel Paul F. Ware’s conclusion that the Probation Department is riddled with fraud and “systemic corruption.”
Thomas M. Petrolati, the third-ranking Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, agreed to leave his leadership post in the wake of the patronage scandal.
