Michael E. McLaughlin, the former Chelsea Housing Authority director already serving a prison sentence for corruption, was indicted again today along with another former housing manager and a private contractor for allegedly rigging federal inspections so that public housing units in Chelsea would pass even though the apartments were poorly maintained.
A federal grand jury in Boston also indicted James H. Fitzpatrick, the housing authority’s former assistant director for modernization and capital planning, and Bernard Morosco, of Utica, N.Y., who was hired as a consultant by McLaughlin to help prepare for inspections.
All three men “knowingly and unlawfully conspired and agreed with each other ... to defraud the United States ... by impairing, impeding and defeating the proper operation of the physical condition assessment” of federal-subsidized apartments in Chelsea, the indictment charges...