BY: Nate Walsh
Source: wggb.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (abc40) — A former Springfield police officer has been sentenced to three to four years in prison and has been ordered to pay back the just under $2,000 he stole from tobacco workers during a 2008 traffic stop.

Hampden Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty III handed down the sentence Thursday morning after a jury convicted Patrolman Steven Buzzell, 35, guilty of three counts of larceny over $250. His partner at the time of the theft, Patrolman Leonardo Matos, 40, was found not guilty of the same charges.

Buzzell will serve his sentence at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Cedar Junction, and will be placed on five years probation following his release.

Each of the officers had denied taking the money during a 2008 Hancock Street traffic stop of three men, who had just cashed their checks for agricultural work they were doing in Connecticut. The men testified their wallets were searched during the stop, at which point their money was stolen.

Buzzell had reportedly earned more than $80,000 from the police department in 2007.

MOTORCYCLE CLUBS ARE NOT STREET GANGS.
(If you believe they are, then the same must be held true of Law Enforcement) if your reaction is… “a few bad apples don’t spoil the whole bunch” then that applies to ANY organization….doesn’t it??

original article:
http://www.wggb.com/Global/story.asp?S=10635483