WORCESTER — Former Republican State Senator Dean Tran of Fitchburg was sentenced on Monday, June 2, to six months in the Worcester County House of Correction after pleading guilty to state charges related to a 2019 incident with an elderly constituent.
Originally set as the start of a jury trial in Worcester Superior Court, the case resolved as a plea agreement, the Telegram & Gazette reported. Tran pleaded guilty to three charges: larceny of a firearm, witness intimidation, and submitting a false statement on an application for a license to carry a firearm. Judge Brent Tingle imposed six-month terms on each conviction, to be served concurrently with each other as well as his ongoing federal sentence.
Prosecutors said the charges stem from a June 2019 incident in which Tran allegedly intimidated an elderly constituent into handing over her late husband’s firearms—claiming at one point to have entered her home and stolen a Colt .45 from her gun safe, even as she hid in her bedroom.
Courtesy Photo: State House News Service
Three additional charges—larceny exceeding $250 from a person over the age of 60, obtaining a signature by false pretenses with intent to defraud, and intimidation to steal from a depository—were dropped as part of the plea agreement between the Commonwealth and Tran.
Tran, a Republican and the first Vietnamese‑American elected to the Massachusetts State Senate, represented the Worcester and Middlesex district in the State Senate from December 2017 to January 2021.
On the federal side, Dean Tran was convicted in September 2024 on 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns. These charges stemmed from his fraudulent receipt of pandemic unemployment benefits and failure to report income to the IRS. He was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $25,100 in restitution to the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance, $23,327 to the IRS, a $7,500 fine, and a mandatory assessment of $2,300, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
“His fraud and calculated deception erode the public’s trust in elected officials and diverted money away from those in need,” stated U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley after the federal sentencing.
In March 2020, the Massachusetts Senate Ethics Committee concluded that then-Sen. Dean Tran had improperly used state staff for campaign-related work during official business hours. As a result, he was removed from his role as assistant minority whip and restricted from directly communicating with staff, except through official email channels, according to Boston.com.
Federal prosecutors alleged that, after his Senate term ended in 2021, Tran illegally collected $30,120 in pandemic unemployment benefits while working as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based automotive parts company. He also concealed $54,700 in consulting income on his 2021 federal tax return, in addition to failing to declare thousands of dollars in rental income from his Fitchburg property from 2020 to 2022 .
