LAWRENCE — Mayor Brian DePeña’s legal problems intensified Thursday when he was indicted on 15 new charges, the majority for wiretap law violations after clandestine audio recordings were discovered at Lawrence City Hall earlier this year.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced Thursday afternoon DePeña was indicted on 14 counts of wiretap violations and one count of intimidation of a witness.
DePeña is accused of interfering with a Lawrence police officer who was delivering grand jury subpoenas to individuals in the city, police said.
The indictments are in addition to the federal charges announced late this summer for $1.5 million on COVID-19 loan fraud.
He is accused of using the proceeds to fund his campaign account and pay personal taxes.
DePeña also used the money to pay off more than $880,000 in high-interest, hard-money mortgages that encumbered various properties he owned in Lawrence, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
He was released after his initial appearance and arraignment in federal court in Boston.
In the City Hall investigation, state troopers, armed with search warrants, seized four cameras from City Hall in March as part of an ongoing criminal investigation by Campbell’s office into the recording.
DePeña is formally charged with 14 counts of distribution of a wiretapped communication and one count of witness intimidation. His arraignment will be scheduled at a later date, Campbell said.
DePeña’s attorney couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
Campbell’s investigation “revealed that, beginning in 2023, Mayor DePeña requested and installed a security system for his office, separate from the security cameras that were already installed and maintained in City Hall,” a news release reads.
Campbell alleges in March 2026 “a hallway conversation outside of the Mayor’s Office within Lawrence City Hall between two public employees was secretly audio and video recorded by one of Mayor DePeña’s private security cameras, unbeknownst to at least one of the conversation participants.
“Knowing that this conversation had been both audio and video recorded, Mayor DePeña distributed copies of the recording to 14 individuals. Security cameras owned and operated by the City of Lawrence do not record audio, and there was no public notice that the mayor’s private surveillance system was recording audio,” Campell said.
Campbell also alleges that in August DePeña committed an additional offense in violation of witness intimidation statute involving a witness in the case.
The leaked video showed William Castro, DePeña’s former chief of staff, and Francisco Urena, the director of Lawrence airport. The two men could be seen and heard talking outside the mayor’s office.
It’s illegal in Massachusetts to secretly record or wiretap an in-person or telephone conversation without the consent of everyone involved. Violating the law is a felony, according to the state’s general laws.
After the leak, Castro was terminated and there were calls for DePeña to resign.
After his firing, Castro filed a lawsuit seeking $4.5 million alleging that he was secretly recorded while he was DePeña’s chief of staff, in part because he is Puerto Rican.
The lawsuit indicates that Castro was “secretly audio-recorded without his knowledge or consent” in violation of the state’s wiretapping laws.
Castro “had no involvement in the procurement, installation, configuration or operation of the surveillance system,” according to the lawsuit.
Previously a political ally of DePena, Castro served as chief of staff and also acting chief of the Lawrence Police Department in DePena’s administration.
Director of IT Services Carlos Castillo has said the recording system was installed in 2023 outside DePeña’s office, but the audio function was initially disabled. It’s unclear how the audio was restored to the system that could only be accessed from Castro’s office, according to an email obtained by The Eagle-Tribune.
However, Castro “had not been aware that secret unlawful audio recordings were being made in City Hall,” according to the lawsuit, which added there “may have been more than one source of audio recording” at City Hall.
A spokesperson for DePeña issued a brief statement to The Eagle-Tribune Thursday night.
“At this time, the matter remains under investigation, and the city is fully cooperating with the appropriate authorities,” she said.
Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter/X @EagleTribJill and Threads at jillyharma.