Public Records & Accountability: How Watertown PD and Chief Justin Hanrahan Sheltered Disgraced Former Trooper Khalil Mafhoum
For an administrator who has built a lucrative parallel career marketing himself as an elite legal expert, police management consultant, and textbook author, the downfall is rarely loud. It is structural, quiet, and profoundly embarrassing.
When Chief Justin Hanrahan sells his services to other municipalities across the Commonwealth, he pitches himself as the authority on modern policing, legal compliance, and rigorous departmental oversight. But when the spotlight shifts from marketing brochures to the actual operations of the Watertown Police Department under his command, the gap between the glossy consultant persona and reality exposes a staggering administrative failure.
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At the center of this failure is the quiet hiring of Officer Khalil Mafhoum — a disgraced former Massachusetts State Police trooper fired for a documented lack of candor and severe civil rights violations. Mafhoum’s history includes a cruiser crash cover-up, a shady deal with an individual possessing open warrants driving an unregistered vehicle, and four green card marriages in just eleven years. Furthermore, despite signing residency affidavits, remortgaging properties, and failing lawsuits confirming his primary residence in Manchester, New Hampshire, Mafhoum has continued to skirt Massachusetts’ strict two-mile residency law while commuting 58 miles.
When public records requests and investigative reporting began shining a light on these conflicts, Watertown brass — including Captain Dan Unsworth and prosecutor Tim Ferriter — resorted to unconstitutional tactics. Rather than answering transparency questions, they collaborated with Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Christa Elliott to forum-shop a retaliatory restraining order 50 miles away into West Roxbury District Court under Judge John Garner, aided by Boston Police Officers Pat Kelley and Nancy Celucci. In court on February 26, 2026, officials even claimed Mafhoum lived on a non-existent “Manchester Street” in West Roxbury.
Taxpayers deserve better than a “rules are for thee, not for me” policing culture.
For full investigative breakdowns, unedited timelines, audio series, and books such as Watertown: Under Color of Law published via Red Oak Media, visit us on Substack and YouTube. Book is available on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and more.
