Charles H. Reardon (born c. 1942) is a former American penal official who served as sheriff of Essex County, Massachusetts from 1978 to 1996.
[3] He was appointed sheriff of Essex County by Governor Michael Dukakis on October 4, 1978 following the resignation of Robert Ellis Cahill due to heart problems.
[4] In 1994, federal authorities began investigating Reardon for allegedly providing a no-show job to one of his fund-raisers and for failing to return a savings bond to a deceased prisoner's family.
[5][6][7] On January 18, 1996, Reardon was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, accepting corrupt payments, misusing public facilities, wiretapping, and obstructing justice.
According to the indictment, Reardon solicited bribes from process servers, used the Middleton jail as the base for his campaign's direct-mail operation, directed subordinates to eavesdrop on employees to determine their loyalty to him, and used the state police computer system to gather damaging information on political opponents.