Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi was arrested for driving while intoxicated on Saturday evening in Springfield, Massachusetts, outside the MGM casino.
Cocchi was charged with one count of operating a vehicle under the influence and was released on his own recognizance.
The sheriff appeared at Springfield District Court on Monday morning for a brief arraignment. His attorney entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. Only hours later, his office released a statement saying Cocchi later changed his plea, admitting there were enough facts to convict him.
Cocchi was granted a continuance without a finding, in which the charge will be dismissed if he does not get in trouble with the law for the next year. In addition, his spokesperson said, Cocchi's driver's license will be temporarily suspended, and he must also take an OUI (operating under the influence) education class.
Outside the courthouse after his earlier appearance, Cocchi spoke briefly to reporters.
"In today's political life, so many people want to point fingers and push blame onto others. I wasn't brought up that way," Cocchi said. "I take full responsibility for what happened this past Saturday. I look forward to moving forward with the sheriff's office and continuing to do the great work that my men and women do each and every day for our community."
Cocchi did not take any questions before departing.
"I hate to give a comment and run," he said, "but unfortunately, I have got to get back to work."
According to the criminal complaint provided to NEPM on Monday afternoon, Cocchi left a sheriff's department vehicle running in the valet parking area at the MGM Springfield casino early Saturday evening. The state-owned SUV was missing a tire and had damage to another tire, the complaint said.
A short time after police discovered the vehicle, Cocchi returned from the casino to the parking area.
"His speech was slurred, and I could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath and person," State Police Lt. Corey Mackey wrote in the complaint's statement of facts. "I also noted his eyes to be bloodshot and glassy."
Mackey wrote that the sheriff claimed he popped a tire coming around a corner near the casino. Surveillance video indicated this was not the case, the complaint said.
Mackey also wrote that Cocchi initially said a friend of his had been driving the car, but then "admitted that he was driving." Cocchi told Mackey he drove to the casino after playing golf at the Springfield Country Club, in West Springfield, and "consumed a couple beers," the officer wrote.
After declining a field sobriety test several times, Cocchi was arrested and brought to the State Police barracks, where he declined a breathalyzer test.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office prosecuted the case, the AG's office said, because it has jurisdiction for incidents on casino property. A spokesperson did not respond to an email looking to confirm details of Cocchi's plea.
Before details of his arrest were made public, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno was asked about the incident by reporters at an unrelated event.
"The court proceedings will clarify situations, but he is a good, good man, without question. He's taken full responsibility," Sarno said.
The Hampden County sheriff runs the Hampden County Correctional Center and the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center, among other law enforcement facilities and services. Cocchi has worked for the sheriff's office since 1993, and became sheriff in 2017.
During his 2016 campaign, Cocchi provided his personnel file to The Republican newspaper. It contained two alcohol-related incidents described in the paper's reporting. In the first, Cocchi was suspended for three days in 1996 for drinking a beer in the parking lot of the jail.
Less than a year later, the newspaper reported, Cocchi and other jail employees attending a training at Westover Air Reserve Base left the base at the end of the day in a sheriff's department van and drove to a strip club. Cocchi acknowledged drinking two beers at the strip club and another at an unnamed location.
"I am mostly sorry for embarrassing myself, the fine instructors we had at Westover and my department," Cocchi wrote in the file.
Cocchi was not suspended for the strip club excursion, The Republican reported, and his file contained no discipline in the years that followed.
NEPM's Nirvani Williams contributed to this report.
