Cape Cod Democratic Rep. Chris Flanagan under investigation for felony larceny, report says

A Democratic state representative from Dennis Port is under investigation for felony larceny over $1,200, though details of the allegations are heavily redacted in a report from the Yarmouth Police Department.

The investigation into Rep. Chris Flanagan, who won reelection to the House this month, comes after he was penalized earlier this year for misleading state regulators about how a campaign mailer was paid for and resigned from his second job at the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Cape Cod in May.

In a redacted police report dated Sept. 21, which was first reported by the Boston Broadside, a Yarmouth police officer said they were called to an unidentified location on Sept. 20 where they met with one or more individuals to discuss Flanagan.

The report said that an unidentified person had a conversation with Flanagan about a secondary certificate of deposit savings account to which Flanagan had access.

“Based on the conversation, (redacted) regarding potential fraudulent use of a business account, (redacted) placed Flanagan on administrative leave pending an internal investigation,” the police report said. “Upon this information from (redacted) dating back to (redacted) when inconsistencies were prevalent when Flanagan used the business account.”

Flanagan did not immediately respond to a phone call and text message from the Herald Friday morning. The Dennis Port Democrat beat his Republican challenger during the Nov. 4 election with 56% of the ballots cast, according to result tallies from the Associated Press.

The police report, in a section titled “other properties,” lists $26,000 and describes the status of the money as “stolen,” according to a copy of the report obtained by the Herald through a public records request.

There were checks written to Flanagan “deposited from” a redacted location and several withdrawals totaling about $36,000 from a redacted location, the police report said.

An unidentified person met with Flanagan several times to “speak about misappropriated funds but has not been able to get a reasonable answer from him.”

“At some point, Flanagan and (redacted) have resulted to communicating via email, as phone calls have gone unanswered and still Flanagan has offered no possible (redacted),” the report said. “It appears Flanagan made charges for his personal credit card then utilized (redacted) account to pay back his expenses)

The report said an unidentified person reviewed Flanagan’s expense reports, which they would later reject in August “as a valid report for transactions made by Flanagan starting on or about (redacted.”

“Flanagan has not made any conservative effort to respond back to (redacted),” the report said. “Only one check of 9,500.00 in good for any discrepancies with the (redacted).”

Flanagan was fined $15,000 in April after he created a fake alias dubbed “Jeanne Louise” to hide his role in the creation of a political mailer that backed his bid for the House during the 2022 election, according to state regulators.

The first-term state representative previously said he “accepted responsibility for the mistakes that led to this outcome.”

“This mailer should never have happened. Oversight of the campaign is my responsibility. It is important for me to share with you how truly sorry I am that this occurred and have taken steps to ensure that it never happens again,” he said.

This is a developing story…