BROADMOOR — Prosecutors have charged the beleaguered former police chief of Broadmoor with three conflict-of-interest crimes based on allegations that he illegally remained on the town’s police commission while applying for the chief job two years ago, participated in the selection process, and even voted on his own raise.

Michael Patrick Connolly, 56, was charged last week with three misdemeanor violations of government codes prohibiting a public officer from having a financial interest on a contract they’re deciding on, and influencing a governmental decision while having a personal financial stake, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Earlier this month, Connolly stepped down from the the town’s chief position — one of eight full-time officers for the enclave of about 5,000 people that is completely surrounded by Daly City. The town, technically an unincorporated part of the county, is the state’s last remaining jurisdiction that uses a special tax-funded police protection district, which in Broadmoor is overseen by a three-member commission consisting of town residents.

“I apologize to you as a commission, to the community, and to the department,” Connolly said at a June 8 meeting, as reported by Mission Local. “We all make mistakes. And sometimes you have to pay for those mistakes.”

The DA’s look into Connolly resulted largely from the attention generated by a complaint made by a part-time Broadmoor police officer to the state Fair Political Practices Commission last August. The complaint gave an account alleging that Connolly routinely engaged in abuses of power and cronyism, which Mission Local detailed in an extensive report in April and described as a “personal fiefdom” all made possible by him keeping his seat on the police commission right up until he took office.

But the scope of the DA probe was limited to Connolly’s actions while he was on the police commission, as a resident of the town and a recently retired deputy chief for the San Francisco Police Department. District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said the conflict charges stem from Connolly’s failure to step down from the commission in March 2019 once he decided he was interested in the chief position.

From there, that failure to step down was compounded by him participating in the search and selection discussions and pushing for a non-agendized vote on the chief decision that would ultimately result in his appointment. That was a violation of the Brown Act, which governs open public meetings for legislative bodies and mandates that the public is given adequate notice about issues up for a vote.

A month after the rest of the commission voted 2-0 to make him chief but before he formally took over the job, he remained on the commission and participated in talks that involved increasing the police budget, including his salary.

Despite all this, Wagstaffe said his office’s investigation concluded that the transgressions were borne from ignorance rather than willful violation or corruption.

“None of this was done with intentional violation of the law,” Wagstaff said Tuesday, the day the charges were publicly announced by his office. “I think it was done in ignorance. But ignorance of the law is not an excuse.”

Wagstaffe added that the other claims made in the FPPC complaint, which includes Connolly hiring old colleagues and friends to the department and being accused of favoritism, were not eligible criminal prosecution and should be addressed by the FPPC and civic bodies, including the commission where Connolly once sat.

Connolly could not be immediately reached Tuesday; messages from this news organization to a listed phone number and email address for him were not returned.