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Boston Globe - State moves to remove officer by court-martial;
says guard misused funds
By Andrea Estes - 1/9/2010

A top official in the Massachusetts National Guard faces possible removal by court-martial after state and federal investigations uncovered a range of alleged improprieties, including misusing federal money, hiring a convicted felon to do legal work, and threatening a whistleblower.

Quartermaster Mark P. Murray, who oversees all state-owned National Guard property, has been on paid leave since April, when the head of the Guard, Adjutant General Joseph Carter, questioned Murray’s handling of federal funds and asked the state auditor and the US Army to investigate.

Though none of the investigations or audits by five federal and state agencies turned up criminal wrongdoing, Murray, who makes $145,000 a year and collects a federal military pension, is accused of violating a host of federal and state rules and regulations.

Yesterday, Murray received a hand-delivered letter accusing him of “waste, fraud, and abuse’’ and ordering him to resign by day’s end or face a court-martial convened by Governor Deval Patrick. State officials could not find a documented court-martial in recent Massachusetts history.

Murray informed the Guard that he would fight the charges, officials said.

“Upon reviewing the results of three separate investigations and audit reviews, Major General Joseph Carter has determined that there is sufficient evidence to initiate court-martial proceedings against Mr. Mark Murray in order to terminate him from his position,’’ said Major James Sahady, a Guard spokesman.

“The adjutant general offered Mr. Murray the opportunity to resign his position in lieu of these proceedings, and he rejected this option.’’

Murray, 60, said in a brief phone interview yesterday, “I deny the allegations as stated in the correspondence I received.’’ He would not comment further.

Murray - who has served as quartermaster since 1997, when he was appointed by Governor Paul Cellucci - is one of a handful of National Guard employees who, under state law, cannot be removed except “by a court-martial legally convened for that purpose.’’

State officials say Murray led the quartermaster’s office, which maintains 45 state-owned armories and other land, as if it were an independent agency. They say he relied on $30 million a year in federal funds to cover expenses without funneling the money through the state treasury or using the state’s accounting system, as required.

In addition, US and state officials accuse him of depositing federal funds in two interest-bearing accounts and using the interest to cover some expenses, in violation of federal rules. The state may now have to pay back the interest, which officials described as a “slush fund’’ and estimated at more than $1.6 million, to the US government.

In the letter, which detailed seven charges, Murray was also accused of other misconduct, including claiming as his own the expenses of a female subordinate who traveled with him to a conference in Florida and threatening a whistleblower who had accused him of spending the interest that belonged to the federal government.

The letter also alleged that he “engaged in inappropriate and culpable behavior’’ by hiring a disbarred public defender, Paul Cacchiotti, after Cacchiotti was convicted in 1998 of taking money from clients he was appointed to represent. Cacchiotti, who was the Guard’s contract manager, was fired in October.

In addition, the letter accused Murray of rehiring, at a rate of pay much higher than allowable under National Guard rules, a friend who had recently retired.

At the court-martial, state officials say, they may also question some of Murray’s travel expenses. He attended an average of three conferences a year between 2003 and 2008, officials said. The trips were to such places as Hawaii, Orlando, Las Vegas, and New Orleans.

It was unclear why the Patrick administration, which has had most of the audit results for months, has only now decided to act. Former National Guard officials had sought to intervene on Murray’s behalf with Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray, but a meeting scheduled for this week was called off.

National Guard officials would not release the details of the federal investigations, saying they were not public records.

The October audit conducted by the office of state Auditor Joseph DeNucci found that the “quartermaster could not adequately ensure the integrity of their records and assets, including over $30 million in various federal funds advanced annually to the Commonwealth.’’

The court-martial will take place within 60 days, officials said. The governor will appoint three hearing officers who will weigh the evidence and decide whether Mark Murray should be removed from his job. The court martial will be an administrative, not criminal hearing, and an adverse finding would not affect Murray’s military status.

If the hearing officers find sufficient cause, Murray will be terminated. The National Guard would also recommend that he forfeit his right to a state pension. He would otherwise be eligible for state benefits, in addition to his federal pension, of roughly $57,000 a year.

State officials last encountered a major problem with the arcane state law on court-martials in 1999, when Cellucci fired the controversial head of the Guard, Raymond Vezina, after reports that he allegedly pressured subordinates to make political donations and wore the uniform of a higher-ranking officer in a Veterans Day parade. Vezina sued, charging that he could not be removed except by court-martial. He settled the suit out of court in 2002.