If a federal jury convicts Suffolk County Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins, he does not automatically stop being sheriff. The governor cannot fire him. The attorney general cannot fire him. A guilty verdict, by itself, does not empty the office.
Massachusetts law on removing an elected sheriff is unusual, and almost nobody outside the appellate bar knows how it works. Here is the actual machinery.
The governor has no power here
This was settled in 1994, and it was settled against a governor who tried.
In McGonigle v. Governor, 418 Mass. 147, the Supreme Judicial Court held that the governor could not suspend the elected sheriff of Middlesex County. Chief Justice Liacos wrote that where the sheriff is an elected official, the governor “was not an ‘appointing authority’ and, accordingly, lacked the power to suspend” him.
The logic is straightforward. An elected officer answers to the voters who put them there, not to another branch of government. That is why Governor Healey and Attorney General Campbell asked Tompkins to step away in August 2025 rather than ordering it, and it is why he has been on unpaid leave rather than suspended.
It also survives a quirk of Massachusetts government: since 2009, seven sheriffs’ offices including Suffolk were transferred to the Commonwealth, which now funds and operates them. The sheriff is a state-funded officer. He is still not a gubernatorial appointee, and that is what controls.
The Supreme Judicial Court can remove him
The removal power sits with the state’s highest court.
Under G.L. c. 211, § 4, a majority of the justices may, “if sufficient cause is shown therefor and it appears that the public good so requires,” and after a complaint and a hearing, remove a list of officials that expressly includes a sheriff. The governor and the attorney general may petition the SJC to start that process. They cannot skip it.
The Court has actually done this. In the companion case, Governor v. McGonigle, 418 Mass. 558, the SJC itself temporarily suspended the Middlesex sheriff while removal proceedings went forward.
No such petition has been reported against Tompkins.
The provision that would actually end it
Here is the part that matters most, and the part most coverage gets slightly wrong.
G.L. c. 279, § 30 provides that if someone holding an office under the constitution or laws of the Commonwealth is sentenced to state prison, or “by a court of the United States to a federal penitentiary for a felony,” the office “shall be vacated from the time of sentence.”
Read that trigger carefully. It is not conviction. It is sentencing to imprisonment.
The practical consequence is a gap. A convicted official remains in office through the weeks or months between verdict and sentencing, and if a sentence carries no imprisonment, the provision does not fire at all. In a federal case, sentencing typically follows a verdict by several months while the probation office prepares a presentence report.
The statute contains one more wrinkle worth knowing. If the judgment is later reversed, the official “shall be restored to his office with all its rights and emoluments.” A pardon does not restore the office unless the pardon says so expressly.
Who fills the seat
If the office does become vacant, G.L. c. 54, § 142 governs. The governor, with the advice and consent of the Governor’s Council, may appoint someone to serve until a sheriff is qualified. The governor then issues precepts for an election to fill the vacancy at the next biennial state election.
Some coverage has described that as a special election. The statute ties it to the regular biennial cycle, which in practice means the next even-numbered November rather than a standalone vote.
Tompkins’s current six-year term runs to 2028. Sheriffs in Massachusetts serve six-year terms under G.L. c. 37, § 1, longer than almost any other elected office in the state.
What happens if he is acquitted
He returns to work. He has never resigned, the leave has been voluntary, and an acquittal leaves the SJC with no basis to entertain a removal petition on these facts.
What the office actually is
Massachusetts sheriffs are not county police. The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department runs the Nashua Street Jail, which holds people awaiting trial, and the South Bay House of Correction, which holds people serving sentences of up to two and a half years. The department also serves civil process, provides court security and prisoner transport, and employs roughly a thousand people.
That is why the vacancy question is not academic. The office controls the custody of thousands of people.
The precedent nobody remembers
John P. McGonigle, the Middlesex sheriff at the center of both 1994 decisions, was suspended by the SJC while removal proceedings ran. Those proceedings were ultimately mooted, because he was convicted federally and the office was vacated by operation of law.
That is the same sequence available here: a court process that can be overtaken by the criminal case resolving first.
For the trial itself, see the case against Steven Tompkins, explained.
Common questions
Can the governor remove a Massachusetts sheriff?
No. The Supreme Judicial Court held in 1994 that the governor is not the appointing authority for an elected sheriff and cannot suspend or remove one.
Who can remove a sheriff in Massachusetts?
The Supreme Judicial Court, under G.L. c. 211, § 4, on a complaint and after a hearing, where sufficient cause is shown and the public good requires it. The governor or attorney general may petition the Court.
Does a conviction automatically remove him from office?
No. Under G.L. c. 279, § 30 the office is vacated from the time of sentence, and only where the sentence is to state prison or a federal penitentiary for a felony. A convicted official remains in office between verdict and sentencing.
Who would replace him?
The governor, with the advice and consent of the Governor’s Council, may appoint an interim sheriff, with an election to fill the vacancy at the next biennial state election.
How long is a sheriff’s term in Massachusetts?
Six years. Tompkins’s current term runs to 2028.
What happens if he is acquitted?
He resumes his duties. He never resigned, and his leave has been voluntary.
Steven Tompkins is presumed innocent and has been convicted of nothing. This article describes Massachusetts law on removal generally.