An alleged racist remark by a Massachusetts State Police trooper during a traffic stop three years ago reportedly helped expose a massive overtime scandal within the agency that eventually led to 10 troopers being charged and dozens more investigated.

A woman was driving through the Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston in October 2016 when she was stopped by two troopers for allegedly driving 10 mph over the speed limit, according to The Boston Globe.

When the woman — an Asian-American — rolled down her window, she claimed one of the troopers repeatedly yelled at her, “Don’t you speak English?”

Identified only as “Debbie” by The Globe to maintain her privacy, the woman held a medical degree from Harvard and spoke four languages fluently. She decided to file a complaint with State Police after the incident.

“I don’t necessarily want to get anyone in trouble,” she told the newspaper. “I don’t have a high bar (for police conduct). I understand they’re doing their jobs. They just have to not be socially offensive.”

That complaint helped spark a massive investigation that led to 10 troopers being charged with stealing overtime money by allegedly skipping shifts, writing phony traffic citations or, in some cases, never showing up for the overtime shifts at all.

Troop E was disbanded as a result of the scandal and more than 40 troopers were flagged for possible abuse of the system.

It all started with a “throwaway line” in Debbie’s complaint — the $105 ticket she received was for the following day, not the night she was pulled over, and the time was off by about 40 minutes.

The Globe uncovered the information through public records and court documents.

Debbie told the newspaper that after she filed the complaint, the State Police investigator she spoke with mentioned that the agency was looking into some personnel issues, and seemed more interested in the time on the citation than her complaint.

The two troopers involved in her case were identified as Michael Casamassima and Eric Chin. Casamassima spoke with Debbie while Chin issued her the ticket, State Police told The Globe.

Her ticket was eventually dismissed in court, and the agency launched an investigation into Chin and Casamassima for alleged “verbal abuse.”

The department upheld the charge against Casamassima, who retired from the department in early 2017, the newspaper reported. He has not been linked to the overtime scandal.

But the post-dating of the ticket led to a separate investigation of Chin, sparking a larger overtime abuse investigation.

State prosecutors found that Chin had written eight tickets on the day Debbie was pulled over and changed the times to make it look like he worked the following day.

Chin was eventually charged and pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of embezzlement from an agency receiving federal funds.

He was sentenced to one day in prison, deemed already served, as well as one year of supervised release with three months to be served under home detention.

He was ordered to pay $7,125 in restitution — the amount of money authorities say he stole by skipping overtime shifts.

The first trooper to be sentenced in the case, Chin was one of the highest-paid troopers in the state police at one time.

He was fired on Dec. 12, 2018. Authorities said he was paid for at least 95 hours of overtime he didn’t work.

Last year, he filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, saying he was unfairly suspended because he is Asian. He claimed that the agency allowed at least six white lieutenants and one trooper accused of similar violations to be reassigned rather than suspended.

That complaint was withdrawn several months ago, Chin’s attorney told The Globe.