Jamaica Plain Man Charged With Seven Counts of Bribery

Two former Roxse Homes employees were arrested Wednesday on charges that they conspired to rent apartments at the housing development in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood to individuals who were not qualified for those apartments, in exchange for cash bribes.

Mathis Lemons, 41, of Brockton, and Ismael Morales, 35, of Jamaica Plain, were indicted on one count of conspiracy and seven counts of bribery, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced.

According to court documents, Lemons was the assistant property manager and that Morales was a maintenance technician for Roxse Homes, a subsidized housing development on Tremont Street in Roxbury.

Roxse Homes offers housing to eligible low-income families.

In 2014, there was a shortage of federally subsidized Section 8 housing in Massachusetts, and Roxse Homes maintained a long waitlist of applicants desiring apartments in the complex. The Roxse Homes waitlist had been closed to external applicants since 2009.

The Indictment alleges that, between approximately September 2014 and February 2015, Lemons and Morales conspired to rent apartments to individuals who were not eligible for subsidized Roxse Homes apartments because they were not on the waitlist. Morales solicited and accepted money from individuals, and in return provided them with blank rental applications.

Morales also instructed some of the individuals not to date their applications, or to date their applications in 2006 or 2009, when in fact the applications were completed in 2014. Lemons then added the unqualified individuals to the Roxse Homes computerized waitlist, and falsely wrote that their application dates were 2006 or 2009.

The charge of conspiracy provides a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. The charge of bribery provides a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.