Former Alderman Pleads Guilty to Attempted Extortion And Bribery Charges

A former Melrose Board of Aldermen President and one-time state representative candidate will spend two-and-a-half years in jail, after pleading guilty to charges that he took a $3,000 bribe to secure a liquor license for a convicted felon who sought to open a restaurant in Everett and offered to sell illegal video poker machines to the restaurant, according to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.

Arthur Hitchman, 41, pleaded guilty today in Middlesex Superior Court to a charge of attempted extortion, for which Judge Kathe Tuttman sentenced Hitchman to a two-and-a-half year prison sentence, the DA's Office announced in a press release.

Hitchman also pleaded guilty to soliciting and accepting a corrupt gift to influence an official act; solicitation to commit the receiving of stolen property; and two counts of improper storage of a firearm. For those charges, Tuttman ordered Hitchman to serve two years probation after his release from prison.

“This defendant has now admitted to taking advantage of his position of authority in order to grant a liquor license in exchange for personal gain,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said in the press release. “This defendant’s criminal actions, which include extorting payment from a prospective licensee in exchange for a large amount of money, are in direct violation of the trust bestowed upon him. We commend the work of the Massachusetts State Police Special Service Section and the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, who worked collectively on this case.”

An investigator for the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, which regulates all liquor licenses in the state, after allegedly accepting a bribe from an undercover Massachusetts State Trooper on May 18, 2010, according to the DA's office.

The investigation resulted from Hitchman contacting a man who wanted to open a restaurant in Everett, according to the DA's office, but could not secure a liquor license because he was a convicted felon and, therefore, planned to run the business through the name of a female relative.

Hitchman knew about the man's criminal history and the plan to run the business under a different name and approached him, telling the would-be restaurateur that he would get him a liquor license in the female relative's name for $3,000, requiring the payment be made to him in cash, the DA's office said. The undercover State Trooper, posing as the female relative's husband, met Hitchman and handed him $3,000 in cash.

Hitchman also offered unprompted to sell the undercover State Trooper illegal video poker machines and suggested that they could be used to generate illegal revenues at the restaurant, the DA's office said.

The gun charges stem from a search of Hitchman's house on July 13, 2010, during which State Troopers recovered two 9mm semi-automatic pistols, one of which was loaded. Neither pistol was secured in a locked container or had a safety device of any kind, according to the DA's office.

In October 2010, in Middlesex Superior Court.

Hitchman was suspended from his job without pay following his arrest, ABCC Chairwoman Kim Gainsboro announced in a press release in July 2010. Gainsboro said last summer that .

According to a database of state salaries compiled by the Boston Herald, Hitchman earned $120,183 in 2008 for his job as an ABCC investigator.

Hitchman was previously Melrose Ward 2 Alderman for eight years and served as president of the Board of Alderman in 2002, when he launched an unsuccessful bid as a Republican candidate for state representative and lost to incumbent Democrat Mike Festa. Three years later, Hitchman lost his bid for one of the four Melrose Alderman at-Large seats. He also previously worked in the office of then-state Senator Richard Tisei, currently a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Information from a Middlesex District Attorney's Office press release and previous Melrose Patch articles was used in this report.