EX Boston Trolley Driver Sentenced To Jail For Staging Attack To Collect WC

Boston, Massachusetts (WorkersCompensation.com)- A former Massachusetts trolley driver has been sentenced to three years and one day for staging a pre-Halloween attack that netted him tens of thousands of dollars in workers’ compensation benefits.

Thomas Lucy was convicted by a Suffolk Superior Country jury last week of two counts of insurance fraud, five counts of workers’ compensation fraud, misleading the police, and making an untrue statement under penalties of perjury for the attack that was staged on the night of Oct 29, 2016, according to court documents. 

As reported last year by WorkersCompensation.com, Lucey had been indicted on charges of fraudulently collecting workers' compensation benefits and disability insurance benefits.

Authorities say Lucey had a paid a man $2,000 to attack him with a trick-or-treat plastic pumpkin while wearing a Michael Myers mask. Reports state that shortly after midnight on Oct. 30, 2016, authority responded to the Cedar Grove station on the Mattapan Trolley line, after getting a call that a man in coveralls who was carrying a plastic pumpkin and wearing a Halloween mask had attacked Lucey, who was the operator on the trolley that night.  Lucey told police the assailant had punched him numerous times after he pulled him out of the trolley and then fled the area.  Lucey was taken to Carney Hospital.

Authorities said fingerprints lifted from the plastic pumpkin that had been left behind at the crime scene led them to an associate of Lucey's who cooperated with police during the investigation.  He told the Transit Police that he had been paid to take part in the planned attack, and provided bank and phone records that showed the communication between the two both prior to and after the staged assault.

Suffolk Superior Court records state that Lucey claimed he developed post-traumatic stress disorder from the attack, but was able to continue working.  He was highly concerned about his own safety. Over time, he had collected around $62,000 in worker's compensation and other insurance company payments.

Following last week’s guilty verdict, Superior court Judge Michael D. Ricciuti sentenced Lucey to three years and one day in state prison with no chance of an early release.

In a news release, the head of the MBTA called Lucey’s actions an "egregious breach of the public trust and a disservice to the thousands of MBTA employees who work hard every day to deliver safe and reliable transit services."

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