It was no secret that for members of Troop E that an officer could get paid without working overtime shifts by falsifying records, an attorney representing former Trooper Eric Chin said Monday afternoon.

“There was a deep culture of corruption and entitlement in Troop E,” said attorney Douglas Louison in federal court, before his client was allowed to go home.

“The Troop E culture invited and allowed Eric Chin to fall into that culture," he added.

Massachusetts State Police spokesman Dave Procopio said in a statement that the internal investigation began with Chin, who in 2016 was the highest-earning officer. Procopio said the audits were part of a larger effort to reform the department.

“Our internal investigation into Eric Chin was the starting point for the eventual wider audits of discretionary overtime pay," Procopio said in a statement. “Those audits resulted in our referring 46 individuals, to date, to state and federal prosecutors for review of potential criminal activity.”

Chin, who was fired by the department in December, was one of several troopers in Troop E working the Accident and Injury Reduction Effort patrols, known as AIRE. Federal prosecutors wrote in Chin’s sentencing memo that the officers were expected to write at least eight citations per shift. It is illegal for law enforcement agencies to implement ticket quotas.

A state police spokesman told MassLive last week that the department “has no policy or operating procedures that establish quotas and does not endorse a quota system.”

Chin, who pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement, was the first officer to be sentenced in the overtime scandal that authorities said involved nearly 50 troopers. Richard G. Stearns sentenced Chin to one day in prison (which he satisfied by appearing in court Monday), three months of house arrest and the following nine months of supervised release.

Chin also had to pay on Monday a restitution fee of $7,125, the amount of money he received for overtime shifts he skipped.

Chin is one of eight troopers who were charged with federal embezzlement in an overtime scandal. Three troopers face state charges in the overtime scandal.

Lt. David Wilson, who retired in April 2016, faces both state and federal charges.

Louison alluded to the quota allegations as the attorney asked for leniency on behalf of Chin. Although the sentencing guidelines called for a 6-to-12-month prison term, U.S. Attorney Mark Grady recommended that Chin serve three months in prison, followed by a year of supervised release and restitution.

Louison asked the judge for a probationary sentence in lieu of prison time.

“He’s a family man,” Louison said, adding that Chin is the primary breadwinner for his wife and two children.

Louison described Chin’s misdeeds as a “serious mistake” that cost him his career and his financial wellbeing, as well as one that he attributed to being a part of Troop E.

Chin apologized for abusing the trust instilled by the commonwealth, the state police and the courts.

Chin said that throughout his career, “I’ve tried to treat people fairly and with respect ... Although I don’t think this incident defines my career, it is ending it.”

The quota allegations, first reported by MassLive, appeared in Chin’s sentencing memorandum last week. They also appeared in trooper Gregory Raftery’s sentencing memorandum, which was filed on Thursday. Neither document explains how the federal prosecutor obtained this information.

In the sentencing memorandum for Chin, federal prosecutors stated that troopers who did not meet an 8 to 10 citation quota per overtime shift on the Massachusetts Turnpike would result in a “trooper being blocked from receiving such overtime opportunities.”

Federal prosecutors say Raftery, 48, of Westwood, destroyed copies of citations in an attempt to cover up the falsified records he made for the specialized patrol shifts he skipped. Raftery, who retired amid the overtime investigation, collected $51,337 in overtime pay in 2015 and 2016.