The Facts in the Case of Lisa Hutchinson, Felon

This week we reported that the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to an agency run by a woman who had previously been arrested for impersonating a police officer. 

We had news reports saying that Lisa Hutchinson, proprieter of Commonwealth Productions, had been arrested along with her husband David Gargano when Gargano's fake-police-charity scam was busted up by the Attorney General's office in 1991. And we had a report from the AG's office from 1993, discussing Gargano's conviction and sentencing.

 But no word on whether Hutchinson had been convicted as well.

Now we know.

According her her file in Suffolk Superior Court, Lisa Hutchinson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, three counts of larceny greated than $250,000, and one count of deceptive solicitation. She was given a three-year suspended sentence, with three years' concurrant probation. She's a felon.

So how did she wind up running a company whose sole purpose, enshrined in its incorporation papers, was "fundraising" for the BPPA? 

And why did so much of the money the union raised while she was working for them end up going to pay her fees - instead of to a scholarship fund, as many contributors were told?

We don't know the answers to those questions - yet. Stay tuned.

Here's a link to an updated version of the story that ran in the paper this week, with all the new information included.