Suspended trooper Gary Herman leaves the Moakley Federal Courthouse. (Photo: Barry Chin/Globe/AP)

By Gintautas Dumcius | MassLive

When Andrew Lelling, a top Massachusetts prosecutor, announced federal charges against three State Police troopers involving overtime abuse, he signaled there's more to come.

"Let me be clear that today's charges are the beginning," Lelling said.

If this is the beginning, then the Massachusetts State Police Department has seen one huge prologue, as the law enforcement agency struggles to step past a series of scandals.

Here's a look at what we know about a scandal, among others, that is touching dozens of troopers and tarnishing the agency's brand.

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This goes back years

Gov. Charlie Baker and Col. Kerry Gilpin, the new superintendent installed to clean up the State Police and root out corruption, repeatedly say the vast majority State Police troopers uphold their oath and play by the rules.

"But for these 30 or 40 troopers, who are part of this alleged scam, which by the way, we believe was going on for many years, they really let everybody else who is part of the State Police, both historically and today, down by doing that," Baker told reporters recently.

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US Attorney Andrew Lelling (Photo: Gintautas Dumcius/MassLive)

The three troopers charged were already on MassLive's list

The three troopers -- one suspended, two retired -- hit with federal charges are among the 28 that MassLive previously identified as under investigation in the overtime scandal. Until these three were named this week, authorities have not released names of any of the troopers under investigation.

A State Police audit showed dozens of troopers may have been paid for overtime shifts they didn't work.

The full list of troopers MassLive has identified is available here.

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The three troopers were arrested at their homes

Early in the morning on June 27 three Massachusetts State Police troopers were arrested at their homes.

They are former Lt. David Wilson, 57, of Charlton; Trooper Gary Herman, 45, of Chester; and former Trooper Paul Cesan, 50, of Southwick. They were charged with "theft from an agency receiving government funds," according to the US Attorney's office.

Prosecutors say the men, who all worked with the now disbanded Troop E, received overtime pay for hours they "either did not actually work at all or shifts in which they departed one to seven hours early."

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Gary Herman, one of the accused troopers, leaves the federal courthouse in South Boston. (Photo: Gintautas Dumcius/MassLive)

Here's the breakdown

The federal charges against the three troopers just cover 2016, hence federal prosecutors voicing the possibility of more charges to come.

In 2016, Wilson, who retired as the overtime scandal burst into public view, earned $230,000, which included overtime for 170 AIRE program shifts, amounting to $68,000 in overtime pay, according to prosecutors.

Wilson only worked some of those hours. Roughly 13 percent of his overtime pay - or $12,450 - was paid for hours he did not work, prosecutors said.

Wilson, a longtime veteran of the force, served as the officer in charge for overtime shifts, according to an affidavit by a FBI special agent.

Gary Herman, who is now suspended without pay,made $227,827 in 2016 with $63,053 of that in overtime. Prosecutors say that $12,468 overtime payment is tied to shifts in which Herman either left early or never worked.

Cesan, who is retired, earned $163,500, including $50,866 in overtime pay. About 57 percent of that overtime sum - or $29,000 - came from shifts he did not work.

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They allegedly deployed 'ghost tickets'

Federal prosecutors allege the troopers "fabricated" tickets to cover up the fraudulent overtime shifts.

For example, Herman allegedly wrote ghost tickets for overtime hours but then never forwarded the citations to the Massachusetts RMV. More on that here.

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David Wilson, one of the three troopers. (Photo: Gintautas Dumcius/MassLive)

We still don't know how much was allegedly stolen in total

Since the charges so far involve just three troopers and the year 2016, coming to a current total of over $50,000, the amount of money involved in the scandal is likely to only go up.

"We can't know at this stage how much money we're really talking about," Lelling told reporters.

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MassDOT spent more than $1 million a year on the program at center of scandal

The Accident Injury Reduction Effort (AIRE) program was available only to members of Troop E and funded through the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The program was a public safety effort, but it created a false sense of security as some troopers never worked the shifts they said they showed up for, prosecutors said.

MassLive obtained records that indicated troopers in the AIRE program put in 13,000 hours of overtime every year.

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(Photo: AP/Steven Senne)

The feds and state Attorney General Maura Healey are both investigating this, but separately

"The feds being entirely separate from the state system, I think it's important to maintain that, so at the end of the day, wherever the chips fall on this, and however many troopers or other members of the organizations are or are not charged, we want the public to have confidence that it was an independent look by the feds and law enforcement did what it's supposed to do," Lelling said.

The alleged overtime abuse has caught the eye of a federal grand jury, which is meeting in Worcester.

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The latest charges came a day after the State Police payroll director pleaded guilty in court

Appearing in Framingham District Court, the former payroll director for the Mass. State Police, Denise Ezekiel, pleaded guilty to larceny over $250.

A day before the three troopers were charged, she was given probation for 2.5 years and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service, and she plans to forfeit $17,049 in vacation pay.

She was earning $95,000 a year in her job.

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Then there's the other scandals

In the last year, the headlines have kept coming. Here are just two:

"Massachusetts State Police suspend Trooper Matthew Sheehan without pay indefinitely after racist posts on MassCops site," said one headline from March. (He's on the list of alleged overtime scandal troopers, too.)

"State police sergeant claims retaliation after reporting trooper who had sex on duty," said another headline in June.

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And the Alli Bibaud case continues to ripple

Call it the scandal before the scandal: Two troopers kicked off a wave of stories, along with federal lawsuits, over the altered arrest report of Alli Bibaud, the daughter of a Worcester County judge.

The troopers say they were wrongly forced to edit out salacious details from the report.

One of the troopers, Ryan Sceviour, in June launched a new lawsuit, accusing Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. of directing a conspiracy to tamper with court documents that are part of the Bibaud case.

The new civil lawsuit was filed in Suffolk Superior Court.

"State officials do not conspire by doing their jobs," Early's attorney, Tom Kiley, told MassLive in response to the suit.

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Gov. Charlie Baker (Photo: AP/Jose Luis Magana)

The scandals are becoming an election year issue

As Gov. Baker comes up for re-election, one of the Democrats seeking to face him this fall issued a call for an independent review of the State Police.

"In light of the mounting number of scandals, management failures and alleged criminal acts coming out of the Massachusetts State Police, today I am calling on the Inspector General to undertake a top to bottom review of the Department," Jay Gonzalez, a former Deval Patrick budget chief now campaigning for the Corner Office, said in a statement.

"The Baker administration's failures have led to fraud, falsified time sheets, falsified citations, embezzlement and general waste of taxpayer resources," Gonzalez said. "An independent review by the Inspector General is needed to restore the public's confidence in an important agency that has lost that confidence."

Baker officials say Gilpin is making headway in reforming the agency.

"Stuff that goes on, on my watch, belongs to me," Baker told WGBH earlier this year. "And what I would hope people would do, [is] respect the fact that I can't possibly know everything about everything, but that once issues are raised, we will do whatever we can to fix them and address them."

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MassLive reporters Scott Croteau, Melissa Hanson, Dan Glaun and Jacqueline Tempera contributed to this report.

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Read more:

State Police overtime scandal a 'terrible stain' that's been going on for years, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker says

Mass. State Police overtime scandal: These are the troopers involved

Read the documents: 3 Massachusetts State Police troopers charged with theft

Charges against troopers are just the beginning of dive into 'rot,' federal prosecutor says

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