Springfield Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer

The Harold D. Donohue Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse

The Harold D. Donohue Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse at 595 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01608 is the Central Division seat of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The building — constructed between 1930 and 1931 and renamed in 1987 to honor Congressman Harold D. Donohue, a Worcester native and World War II veteran who served in the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1974 — houses federal court operations for the Central Division and federal agency offices serving central Massachusetts.

Judge Margaret R. Guzman and Senior Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV maintain chambers at the Donohue Federal Building. Active Article III district judges from the Moakley Courthouse in Boston may also be assigned to Central Division cases on a rotating basis. Magistrate judges at the Donohue Building handle initial appearances and detention hearings for defendants arrested in the Central Division — the same procedural sequence, and the same consequences for an adverse detention ruling, as at the Moakley Courthouse in Boston.

The courthouse’s smaller operational footprint relative to Boston does not mean a smaller investigation. USAO-MA prosecutors assigned to Central Division cases operate from the same Boston office that handles the district’s largest healthcare fraud, financial crime, and drug prosecutions. A defendant charged in Worcester faces the same charging authority, the same sentencing guidelines, and the same post-conviction consequences as a defendant charged in Boston.

Central Massachusetts Healthcare and MassHealth Fraud

The most consistently active federal offense category in Worcester’s Central Division is healthcare fraud — specifically, MassHealth (Medicaid) provider fraud arising from the region’s network of home health agencies, medical transportation companies, clinical laboratories, and group adult foster care providers operating in the UMass Memorial health system’s service area.

The pattern of Central Division healthcare fraud cases is distinct from the Longwood Medical Area and Kendall Square cases that dominate Boston’s docket. Worcester-area cases typically involve smaller provider entities — transportation companies, home health agencies, laboratories — billing MassHealth for services not rendered, not medically necessary, or improperly documented. The dollar amounts are smaller than a Longwood Area hospital settlement but the criminal exposure — healthcare fraud charges under 18 U.S.C. § 1347, false claims to a federal program, money laundering counts tied to proceeds — produces the same federal sentencing guideline exposure that applies anywhere in the District.

Recent Central Division healthcare enforcement reflects this pattern directly. In March 2025, Instant Transport and its owner were indicted on seventeen counts — including Medicaid False Claims, Money Laundering, and Witness Intimidation — arising from allegations that the company billed MassHealth more than $3 million for transportation services never provided. In March 2025, a grand jury returned indictments against Central Lab Partners, LLC, a Worcester-based clinical laboratory, and a Falmouth-based physician for alleged submission of more than $7.8 million in false claims for urine drug testing and home health services. A Worcester-based group adult foster care provider and its administrator pleaded guilty in related proceedings for a MassHealth fraud scheme involving billing for services not delivered. A separate Worcester healthcare provider pleaded guilty to a $1.6 million MassHealth fraud scheme.

These are not outliers. They are representative of the Central Division’s enforcement pattern. Healthcare providers operating anywhere in central Massachusetts — physicians, laboratories, home health agencies, transportation companies, group care facilities — operate within an environment where USAO-MA and the Massachusetts AG’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit actively refer matters for federal prosecution.

Facing Federal Charges in Worcester?

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts handles Central Division cases out of the same Boston office that brings the district’s largest healthcare fraud and financial crime prosecutions. The resources behind a Worcester federal case are identical to the resources behind a Boston federal case.

Call (617) 741-7600 — 24/7 Confidential Consultations.
Attorney Stefanie A. Murphy is admitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Drug Trafficking in Central Massachusetts

Drug trafficking cases represent the second major enforcement category in Worcester’s Central Division, concentrated around the distribution networks that operate along the I-90, I-290, and I-495 corridors through central Massachusetts.

In September 2024, thirteen individuals were charged in connection with a Worcester-area drug trafficking organization — a multi-defendant case of the type that defines the Central Division’s drug docket. Federal drug trafficking charges under 21 U.S.C. § 841 and § 846 carry mandatory minimum sentences that are identical to those applied in Eastern Division cases: five years for certain quantities, escalating to ten and twenty years based on drug type and weight. Co-defendant cooperation pressure — where co-defendants offer testimony in exchange for sentencing reductions — is as prevalent in Worcester drug cases as in any Boston OCDETF case.

The intersection of drug trafficking and financial crimes appears consistently in the Central Division. A Worcester defendant was sentenced in federal court for possessing cocaine intended for distribution and wire fraud related to COVID-19 relief programs — a combination that reflects the government’s practice of charging financial fraud counts alongside drug offenses when evidence of both exists. Federal drug charge defense in Central Division cases requires immediate attention to mandatory minimum exposure and the cooperation dynamics that shape plea outcomes in multi-defendant cases.

Venue: When a Central Massachusetts Case Ends Up in Boston

Cases filed in the Central Division are generally heard at the Donohue Federal Building in Worcester. But the Central Division’s geographic boundaries are not impermeable, and venue decisions in federal cases carry strategic significance.

When a drug distribution network operating in central Massachusetts has a supply chain that extends into the Lawrence-Lowell corridor or into Boston — as many do — the USAO-MA may elect to file charges in the Eastern Division at the Moakley Courthouse. When a healthcare fraud scheme involves providers operating in both Worcester County and the greater Boston area, charges may be filed in either division. When a white-collar matter involves conduct that spans multiple states or that implicates Boston-based financial institutions or employers, the Eastern Division may be the filing venue even if the defendant’s primary conduct occurred in central Massachusetts.

Venue is a question of where the offense occurred — and in federal practice, where any part of the offense occurred is sufficient to establish venue. Defense counsel’s early assessment of the venue question — whether the case is properly in the Central Division, whether venue could be contested, and what the practical implications of each courthouse are for the assigned judge and the realistic range of outcomes — is part of the foundational work that begins at retention.

Federal Charges Prosecuted at the Donohue Federal Building

The following charge categories regularly appear in Central Division cases prosecuted by the USAO-MA in Worcester:

• Healthcare fraud — MassHealth provider fraud, false claims, Anti-Kickback Statute; concentrated in the UMass Memorial system service area
• Government fraud and False Claims Act — Federally funded program fraud, PPP and COVID relief fraud, federal grant fraud
• Money laundering — Proceeds laundering tied to healthcare fraud and drug trafficking
• Medicare fraud — Federal billing fraud, kickback schemes in the central MA provider community
• Wire fraud — Electronic billing submissions, electronic communications in furtherance of fraud
• Federal drug charges — I-90/I-290/I-495 corridor trafficking; mandatory minimums; multi-defendant OCDETF cases
• ERTC fraud — Employee Retention Credit fraud prosecutions in the Central Division
• Tax fraud — Unreported income tied to healthcare and drug proceeds; business tax fraud
• Embezzlement — Employee benefit plan fraud, fiduciary misappropriation in central MA businesses and nonprofits
• Mail fraud — U.S. mail used in furtherance of fraud schemes charged alongside healthcare and government fraud
• Federal firearms charges — 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) charges; firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking
• Public corruption — Public employee and contractor fraud in central Massachusetts municipalities
• Immigration crimes — Visa fraud, document fraud in the central Massachusetts immigrant community
• Cybercrime — Computer fraud tied to healthcare billing systems and financial fraud schemes

For the full scope of Massachusetts federal criminal defense practice areas, including pre-indictment representation, sentencing advocacy, and post-conviction relief, see our statewide hub.

After a Worcester federal conviction, post-conviction relief in Central Massachusetts under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 can still change the outcome.

Attorney Representation at the Worcester Federal Courthouse

Attorney Stefanie A. Murphy is admitted to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Bar No. 663646) and represents clients facing federal charges at the Harold D. Donohue Federal Building in Worcester. Murphy holds active federal bar admissions in D. Mass., D. Conn., and D.R.I. Federal clients in the Worcester area consult by phone or Zoom — there is no need to travel to Rhode Island. Marin & Murphy maintains its primary office at 6 Wanton Shippee Road, East Greenwich, RI 02818.

Marin & Murphy Law Firm represents clients throughout the District of Massachusetts from its offices in East Greenwich, Cranston, and Providence, Rhode Island. The (617) 741-7600 line connects directly to the firm, and consultations are available 24/7 by phone or video, with in-person meetings by arrangement.