BOSTON (AP) — A Boston police officer has pleaded guilty to sending a phony $790 traffic ticket to another driver following a road rage incident, prosecutors said.
Officer Christopher Curtis, 37, who was scheduled to go on trial Monday, pleaded guilty Thursday to six charges in connection with the March 2019 confrontation on Interstate 93 in Stoneham, Massachusetts, according to a statement from the office of Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.
He was placed on a year of probation and ordered to pay the other driver $525 in restitution, the amount that person spent fighting the ticket in court, prosecutors said.
“The public puts their trust in members of law enforcement with the expectation that they will use the power and authority of their position for the protection and betterment of the communities they are sworn to serve,” Hayden said. “When an officer abuses their authority, as Officer Curtis did in this case, we must ensure that they are held accountable for their offenses and for their breach of the community’s trust.”
According to authorities, after the road rage incident, Curtis abused his position as a police officer to run the victim’s license plate and sent the victim a $790 traffic citation in the mail a week later. Included was a threatening, handwritten note challenging the victim to dispute the ticket, prosecutors said.
Curtis is currently suspended without pay and the subject of an open internal affairs investigation, Boston police detective Sgt. John Boyle said.