Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins Arrested In Florida, Charged With Extortion: FBI

BOSTON, MA — Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins was arrested in Florida on federal extortion charges, the FBI said.

Tompkins was taken into custody Friday morning in Fort Lauderdale, according to the FBI.

Tompkins, 67, was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of extortion under color of official right, the FBI said in a media release. He was to appear in court in Florida on Friday morning and in Boston at a later date.

Tompkins extorted $50,000 from the owner of a national cannabis retailer, the release said.

The scheme involved pressuring the executive for stock in the company, according to the release, "reminding (the executive) that Tompkins had helped (the company) in its Boston licensing efforts."

"It is alleged that (the executive) believed and feared that Tompkins would use his official position as Sheriff to jeopardize" the company's partnership with the sheriff's department, as well as "imperil" both its dispensary license as well as the timing of an initial public offering," the release said.

Tompkins bought $50,000 of stock in the company, which increased in value to $138,403, the release said, but then plummeted to the point that it was "worth several thousand dollars less than the $50,000 he originally invested."

"However, Tompkins demanded a refund of $50,000 and, despite the decrease in the value of Tompkins’s investment, (the executive) agreed to Tompkins’s demands for full repayment of $50,000," the release said.

The executive refunded Tompkins' $50,000 with five checks written from May 2022 to July 2023, according to the release, adding "memos on certain checks that read 'loan repayment' and '[company] expense' to disguise the nature of some of the payments."

Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston Division, said in the release that the "citizens of Suffolk County deserve better, not a man who is accused of trading on his position to bankroll his own political and financial future. "

"From his very first day as Suffolk County Sheriff, Steven Tompkins sought to portray himself as a man of the people — a principled public servant and reformer, devoted to the cause of justice," Docks said. "That’s why it’s beyond disappointing that he’s now accused of gaming a system instituted in the interests of public safety and fair play."

Tompkins was appointed sheriff in 2013, won a 2014 election and was reelected in 2016 and 2022, according to the sheriff's office.