A former Massachusetts gubernatorial aide accused of sending eight kilos of cocaine to a state workplace constructing was paid greater than $30,000 for his unused trip days, Gov. Maura Healey admitted Tuesday.
LaMar Cook dinner, 45, had a soft base pay of roughly $99,000 — and was rewarded with an additional $31,438.56 in “purchase again,” or unused trip pay, after his abrupt arrest in late October, in keeping with payroll information seen by the Boston Globe.
Healey’s administration claimed it by no means meant to flush Cook dinner with the additional money — which he desperately must settle his $85,000 bail.
“Taxpayer {dollars} ought to by no means go to a person who engaged in such a outrageous legal exercise. This fee was erroneously made, and we now have taken motion to get it again,” a spokesman for Healey’s Government Workplace for Administration and Finance mentioned in a press release to the outlet.
Cook dinner is accused of trafficking medicine to the governor’s Western Massachusetts workplace in Springfield, the place he labored as a deputy director, and the UMass Lodge in Amherst. Each areas are simply 27 miles aside.
Officers launched an investigation after they intercepted two packages containing about 13 kilograms of the drug on the lodge on Oct. 10, the place he additionally labored earlier than becoming a member of the Democrat’s group in 2023. One other package deal containing roughly eight kilograms of cocaine have been later nabbed on the Springfield workplace.
Cook dinner was arrested throughout a visitors cease on Oct. 28 and charged with trafficking over 200 grams of cocaine, illegal possession of a firearm, and illegal possession of ammunition associated to the bust, in keeping with the Hampden District Legal professional’s Workplace.
After his arrest, a Healey consultant confirmed Cook dinner had been fired and said that his alleged crimes have been “unacceptable and represents a significant breach of the general public belief.”
Mike Kennealy and Brian Shortsleeve, two Republicans vying for Healey’s seat within the state’s 2026 gubernatorial race, have been fast to blast her administration’s obtrusive oversight.
“Maura Healey gave her staffer who trafficked cocaine out of her workplace a golden parachute after he was indicted. Time for a brand new Governor,” Kennealy wrote on X.
“Unused trip pay buyout for the cocaine trafficker, you’ll be able to’t make these things up! Maura Healey nonetheless hasn’t come clear about what she knew and when she knew it after it was revealed her workplace knew about Lamar Cook dinner’s violent legal historical past, and now she’s paying him over $30,000 in unused trip pay. That is utterly unacceptable, what’s Governor Healey considering?” Shortsleeve wrote on X.
The Put up reached out to Healey’s workplace for remark.
