Credit card-obsessed former district attorney Rachael Rollins missed agency fee reimbursem*nts for trips to Berlin and Lisbon, leading to a Suffolk County case, a Herald analysis of her huge spending revealed. Taxpayers must bear this cost.
Rollins, who now earns $80,000 part-time at Roxbury Community College, maxed out her taxpayer-funded credit cards — taking 18 flights — in her first year as Suffolk district attorney. , visited spas in Ireland and Virginia, stayed at luxury hotels, and was a regular at the “stylish and elegant” Oceanaire seafood restaurant in the Financial District, newly obtained records in 2019 show.
However, early in her tenure at the left-leaning national nonprofit Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP), she missed refunds for trips to Germany and Portugal to study “second chances” and decriminalization of drug use.
In May 2019, she took the two fashionable European cities by storm and used taxpayer-funded credit cards to pay for public expenses at the Berlin Hilton ($458) and Lisbon's Porto Bay Liberdade restaurant ($25.55). The FJP told the Herald on Monday the fee had been paid.
“Elected leaders often incur expenses related to travel or transportation, which are then reimbursed by FJP funds,” said Miriam Kirnsky, the nonprofit's executive director. She added that these trips must not Not to “create a fiscal burden on…taxpayers.”
But that's exactly what Rollins did, leave money on the table. The district attorney's office told the Herald on Tuesday they had no record of her seeking reimbursem*nt.
In a follow-up public records request, the Herald found that while serving as district attorney, Rollins spent $33,132 on her P-Card, a taxpayer-paid purchase card that says her name. The amount includes $13,969 in 2019 and $19,163 for the remainder of her term.
Her role is to oversee the use of such cards issued to her office, according to the state Auditor's Office. He served as prosecutor for $190,999 from January 2019 until he was sworn in as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts on January 10, 2022, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the decisive One ticket.
She was forced to resign from the lofty position on May 19, 2023, after the Justice Department issued two scathing reports on her shaky tenure. She was accused of trying to influence the outcome of the Suffolk County district attorney's race and attending a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Andover, potentially violating Hatch Act ethics rules.
Rollins did not return a message left at her office at Roxbury Community College on Tuesday requesting comment on her first-year bill or seeking reimbursem*nt for agency fees for trips to Berlin and Lisbon in 2019.
As with previous P-Card stories, Rollins seemed to escape all responsibility.
“Taxpayers deserve to know why these whirlwind trips are needed to maintain public safety in Suffolk County,” Pioneer Institute Chief Operating Officer Mary Connaughton told the Herald on Tuesday. “Even if policies allow district attorneys to control the purse strings, all expenditures should be in the public interest.”
Bills from Rollins' first year show he tended to enjoy expensive dinners at The Oceanaire. The bills were $275, $246, and $127 respectively. She spent another $260 at MIDA in Boston's South End—where every meal is advertised as a “gift just for you.”
Records show that in August 2019, Rollins also billed taxpayers in Suffolk County (Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop) to the Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, Virginia. five-star resort) charged a whopping $323.
As incredible as the prosecutor's investigative duties were, Rollins traveled to Ireland that same month, dined at The Holy Grail, an Indian restaurant in New Ross, Ireland, and paid for the Brandon Villa Hotel and Suites in Wexford, Ireland. Bill from Brandon House Hotel & Spa. That statistic does include the $300 “Fast Frame,” but no explanation is given.
Obviously, the pandemic with global lockdowns in March 2020 did curtail her many flights to Washington, D.C., Cleveland, New Jersey, New York and elsewhere, but that didn't stop Rollins from her love of food.
“I bet Oceanaire was sorry to see her go,” one observer of the credit card statement commented.
Some of the allegations made by taxpayers remain a mystery, as Rollins refuses to respond at all — including why he flew to St. Louis? Why choose American Airlines and Delta over discount airlines? What's so important in North Carolina, South Carolina, Philadelphia, Ohio? Why spend $300 via PayPal to attend the California Rose Parade?
And, why is the Suffolk County District Attorney charging Berkshire County meal expenses? The Easton Hotel in Washington, D.C.? A-Loft in Harlem? Five guys from Framingham and the Roche Brothers running a $32.95 grocery store?
The state Department of Higher Education declined to comment on Rollins’ position at Roxbury Community College overseeing a program “serving individuals returning from prison” or whether she now has a state-funded credit card. The community college said “at this time” they “are not responding to media inquiries regarding Rachel Rollins.”
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