Former audit employee is indicted on bribe charge

[Ian David]

Former audit employee is indicted on bribe charge

By Associated Press | July 13, 2007

A former employee in the state auditor's office is charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes from three people who expected him to reinstate their suspended driver's licenses.

Lawrence Trapasso, 45, is scheduled to be arraigned July 24 on bribery, extortion, and larceny charges in Suffolk Superior Court. A grand jury indicted him Wednesday.

Trapasso was an administrative staff assistant for Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci for nine years. He left his job in August.

The allegations became public in February, when the lawyer for a man convicted of vehicular manslaughter filed court documents saying his client bribed Trapasso to get his driving privileges back. According to those documents, Keith Doucette said he paid Trapasso nearly $15,000.

Doucette pleaded guilty in 1998 to charges in a drunken driving accident that killed Michael Brodeur and injured Brodeur's wife and three children. After serving four years in prison, he was placed on probation and told he couldn't drive until 2009.

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