Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon Pleaded Guilty To 17 Counts – Now He Reports To Jail

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For two decades, Joseph Solomon ran the Methuen Police Department. Prosecutors say he also quietly decided who got to join it — rigging the civil service hiring process for favored candidates, backing it up with a forged police academy diploma, and then lying under oath about it.

This month, Methuen Police Chief Joseph Solomon pleaded guilty to ALL 17 counts — eleven felonies and six misdemeanors covering the rigged hiring, the fake diploma, and the perjury. The math on the plea is the story: he turned down a deal worth 4 to 5 years in state prison earlier this year, gambled on trial, and ended up admitting to every single count anyway.

The original deal was even softer. The Attorney General’s office had agreed to no jail time and his pension intact — until the mayor, a retired police chief, and the acting chief showed up in person to object. That meeting killed the arrangement, and the case landed where it landed: 30 days in jail, a suspended two-and-a-half year sentence hanging over him, up to 20 years behind bars if he violates probation, and his pension gone.

Now the city wants roughly $1 million back — the money tied to the hiring process he rigged while running the department.

The chief who broke the civil service laws he enforced — and the paper trail that caught him — in the episode above.

Sources: WHAV (Sept 20); MA AG Campbell release; The Valley Patriot; WCVB; WHAV (Sept 9); Hoodline/CBS Boston.