State Police: Scirocco caught with cocaine packaged for sale

By George P. Hassett

A Winter Hill man who ran for mayor last year was caught on Revere Beach Boulevard with 17 bags of cocaine on Monday, according to the State Police.

Richard J. Scirocco, 42, of 10 Howe Street, was caught with the drugs after a state trooper pulled his 1997 Chevy Trailblazer over for speeding and a marked lanes violation, police said. Scirocco was driving with another man, Scott Carty Jr., 21, in the passenger seat, police said. Both men acted nervously and
moved toward the center console of the car when the trooper approached them, police said.

Inside the center console, the trooper allegedly found a double-edged knife, one plastic bag containing four more plastic bags of cocaine and 13 loose bags of cocaine packaged for sale.

Both men were arrested and charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and drug violation in a school zone. Scirocco was also charged with a marked lanes violation and failure to signal before making a turn.

Scirocco received 464 votes for mayor last year and finished third against incumbent Joseph A. Curtatone and challenger, Suzanne Bremer. On Election Day, Scirocco drove around the city in a stretch limousine while teenagers shouted, “Vote for Scirocco, vote for change” through a bullhorn from the vehicle’s windows.

After the election results came in showing that he had finished third, Scirocco blamed his loss on media coverage of his past arrests. Four women, all mothers of his children, had each taken out restraining orders against him, and Scirocco once pled guilty to punching his child’s mother in the face.

He was also put in handcuffs in March 2004 after police said he bought three kegs of beer for more than 30 teenagers. He was the city’s Little League Baseball president at the time.

“If the papers had given me a chance and not gone through with a smear campaign against my name, maybe people could have had a different perspective of me and I would have prevailed,” Scirocco said after the loss last year. “I’m not a bad person; at least I don’t think I am. The media is completely the reason I lost.”

Scirocco did not return a phone call for this story.