Lawrence Mayor Brian A. DePeña’s legal troubles are growing with word Thursday a statewide grand jury returned 15 indictments against him in connection with the use and distribution of surveillance footage at Lawrence City Hall.
Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office said DePeña is charged with 14 counts of distribution of a wiretapped communication and one of witness intimidation. He will be arraigned in court at a later date. The new charges come five weeks after DePeña was federally charged with wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly fraudulently obtaining more than $1.5 million in COVID-19 small-business loans.
The state attorney general’s investigation revealed that, beginning in 2023, DePeña requested and installed a security system for his office, separate from security cameras that were already installed and maintained in City Hall. In March 2026, Campbell’s office alleges, a hallway conversation outside of the mayor’s office between two public employees was secretly audio and video recorded by one of DePeña’s private security cameras, with at least one of the participants unaware of the recording.
Knowing that this conversation had been both audio and video recorded, prosecutors said, the Lawrence mayor distributed copies to 14 people. They noted, security cameras owned and operated by the City of Lawrence do not record audio, and there was no public notice the mayor’s private surveillance system was recording audio.
Further, prosecutors allege, DePeña last month violated a witness intimidation statute.
Chief Elizabeth Burke and Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Woolf, of the attorney general’s White Collar and Public Integrity Division, with assistance from Directors Chris Kelly and Paul Melaragni and Digital Evidence Analyst Jillian Tam of the office’s Digital Evidence Lab. Massachusetts State Police and Lawrence Police Department also assisted in the investigation.