Teamsters protest Mass Turnpike's "unjust" suspension of murder indictee toll collector

The Boston Herald reports that Local 127 Teamsters union representing toll collectors in Massachusetts has protested as "unjust" the suspension by the Turnpike of toll collector Paul Moccia charged in court this week with a grisly drug murder. At his arraignment in Wrentham MA a prosecutor said the state would bring evidence that Moccia had shot a man to get out of a $70k cocaine debt, then with a buddy had dismembered his body and then "cooked" the body parts to dispose of them.

Prosecutor Robert Nelson said that Moccia, 48, was a drug dealer dealing in "kilograms" of cocaine. He is charged with a friend from schooldays Daniel Bradley, 47 with the murder of Angel Antonio Ramirez, 37 an immigrant from Guatemala and construction worker.

Nelson said at the arraignment hearing that Moccia murdered Ramirez in order to erase a $70k debt he'd incurred in the purchase of supplies of cocaine from the Guatemalan immigrant.  According to the prosecutor Moccia lured Ramirez to a meeting at his pal Bradley's concrete mixing plant in Walpole MA and shot him with a .357 revolver. Nelson says that Moccia and Bradley cut up the body of Ramirez, and cooked the parts.

Ramirez was reported missing late March.

Moccia a toll collector at the Mass Pike since the late 1980s has a court record going back thirty years involving drug dealing. Before he gained a job at the Turnpike he was fired as a jail guard after a drug arrest. Before being a jail guard he was dismissed by Boston Edison, an electric utility for drug offenses.

As the Boston Herald points out in an editorial drug arrests are apparently no bar to employment in Massachusetts state jobs if you have the right connections.

The Herald reports that his wife's petition for divorce last year featured concerns about the toll collector's criminal career.  She reported finding a paper bag with $30k in $100 bills in their house.

Moccia on a base pay of $53k as a fulltime toll collector earned $63k last year from the Mass Pike  after overtime was added. He is currently "suspended" by the Turnpike and faces a disciplinary hearing - which he won't be able to attend since he was denied bail and is in custody awaiting the murder trial.

The Teamsters Union wants this man kept on the Turnpike payroll.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-06-11