The city of Boston, in connection with its lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC), has issued over a dozen of subpoenas for state police officers and members of the attorney general’s office who allegedly provided unauthorized access to a ‘wiretap room’ to investigators working for casino operator Wynn Resorts.
The subpoenas stated that members of the Massachusetts State Police and Attorney General’s Office provided retired state troopers Joseph Flaherty and Stephen Matthews, who were working as private investigators for Wynn, access to files of an ongoing criminal investigation of Charles Lightbody.
Lightbody is a felon who secretly had an ownership interest in the former Monsanto Chemical site—the venue where Steve Wynn plans to build his $1.75 billion resort casino.
Flaherty and Matthews also reportedly gained access to the prison tapes that contain Lightbody bragging about his Everett land ownership to his inmate Darin Bufalino.
Boston’s lawyers requested copies of all files of the Lightbody investigation including photographs, wiretap call logs, and surveillance videos.
But Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver denied that Flaherty and Matthews were hired as Wynn’s investigators and the company says it was unaware of both this incident and the identity of the two men.
MGC spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll in a written statement called the issued subpoenas “a continuation of the City’s costly legal strategy to litigate meritless claims in the press.”
“The Commission will continue to address these issues in the appropriate legal forum as we have consistently done,” Driscoll added.
Boston College gaming expert Richard McGowan said this allegation, if proven true, would put Wynn’s Everett casino proposal in jeopardy.
“The Gaming Commission wants someone that is clean, absolutely lily pure. Obviously this is going to throw the whole thing into a quagmire if it’s true. … They can’t afford to have any kind of scandal around the person who has the license,” said McGowan.
The MGC requested to delay the subpoenas until after a July 9 hearing on the Commission’s motion to dismiss Boston’s lawsuit.
The suit, which was filed in October by Boston officials including Mayor Martin Walsh, accused the MGC of giving preferential treatment to Wynn Resorts’ $1.6-billion project, which beat out Mohegan Sun for the lone Boston-area casino license in September.
