LaMar Cook, former Healey aide, defends $31,000 state payout amid drug trafficking charges. ‘I earned it.’

Politics admin July 22, 2026 0 Comments

LaMar Cook, former Healey aide, defends $31,000 state payout amid drug trafficking charges. ‘I earned it.’

SPRINGFIELD — LaMar D. Cook, a former aide to Governor Maura Healey now facing drug trafficking charges, defended getting a $31,000 state payout, arguing it’s money he “earned” over years of working as a state employee.

The Healey administration paid Cook in November for unused vacation time he earned largely fromhis yearsworking at Hotel UMass. Healey hired him in 2023 as deputy director of her Western Massachusetts office before firing him last fall.

Cook, who was arrested in October, has pleaded not guilty to gun and drug trafficking charges.

Healey administration officials sued him in January, saying the $31,438 he received was “erroneously paid out,” and that he should return it, plus interest. State officials said Cook is not entitled to the money because he was terminated “for cause.”

According to Healey’s lawsuit, the payment included 530 hours of unused leave, or roughly 71 days’ worth.

After a brief hearing in Hampden County Superior Court on Wednesday, Cook told reporters that he earned the unused time.

“I earned it over a decade of service to the Commonwealth,” he said.

In charging Cook, prosecutors said police seized eight kilograms, or roughly 17 pounds, of cocaine that were set to be delivered to the state building in Springfield where Cook worked for the Healey administration.

Prosecutors also said they found a digital scale with traces of heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, and cutting agents in a cabinet in Cook’s office.

Cook’s attorney, Kedar Ismail, said his client is “presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

“We are at the beginning of this case. This gentleman has had his life probed into in so many ways,” Ismail said.

Cook has argued in court documents that he should keep the $31,000 payout, in part, because he was fired “via email” before he was criminally charged.

With a state trooper posing as a UPS driver during an October sting operation, police said they detained Cook after he came to the building to retrieve the package they said contained cocaine. He was later released pending further investigation. Police arrested and formally charged him three days later. Healey’s office has long said Cook was fired “effective immediately” from his $115,668-a-year job.

At court Wednesday, Cookdeclined to comment on Healey’s lawsuit, saying “we still haven’t received any information back from that.” The case is still pending in Suffolk Superior Court, and a hearing has not yet been scheduled, according to court records.

Cook was long regarded as a pillar of the Springfield community and a mentor to the city’s Black youth. His arrest last fall sent shockwaves through the city, where he advocated against gun violence after his younger brother was killed in a 2017 shooting.

Prosecutors contend he was living a “double life.” Cook appeared to have worked with an accomplice who previously lived in Springfield but later moved to Houston, according to records prosecutors said were recovered from Cook’s cellphone.

Healey, who is seeking reelection this fall, has said she wishes that Cook had “never been hired.”

Cook posted $25,000 bail earlier this year and was released in March from the Hampden County Correctional Center.

Cook confirmed to reporters that he has used money fromthe unused vacation time payout to partially fund a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida this month, and said he has other vacations planned.

He also defended using federal food benefits while in Florida after The Boston Herald reported that Cook used a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program card at a supermarket near the resort.

“I have no income,” said Cook, who questioned why that information had been “leaked.”