Adam Conheeny is following in the footsteps of Christopher Hayes. And the path isn’t an enviable one. On December 20, Conheeny, ex-treasurer of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 8, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to three months in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release, for wire fraud in the sum of $31,413 against the Newport, R.I.-based union over a five-year period. He had pleaded guilty in May following an investigation by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General, and the Rhode Island State Police. He has paid back the union in full. The case grew out of an investigation of former lodge President Christopher Hayes, who was sentenced in July 2017 for ripping off the union by more than $70,000.
According to prosecutors, Conheeny, 46, a resident of Portsmouth, R.I., and an officer with the Newport police force for some two decades, fraudulently converted union funds to his own personal use during 2009-14. Unbeknownst to fellow officers, he had serious drinking and gambling problems which contributed to his thefts. “I had gambling issues when I was drinking,” he told U.S. District Judge William Smith. “I have no one to blame but myself.” Judge Smith ordered Conheeny to continue his alcohol abuse treatment during his supervised release. In the meantime, Conheeny’s legal woes aren’t quite over. He had been arraigned on November 29 on a separate state charge of receiving a stolen iPhone. Nobody ever said rehabilitation was easy.