A woman described by a federal prosecutor as the girlfriend of Sen. Mark Montigny of New Bedford received the highest score in the final interview for a probation officer’s job in 2008 even though one of the two officials conducting the interview testified she was “woefully inadequate as far as her qualifications.”

Edward F. McDermott testified in US District Court on Tuesday that neither he nor his fellow interviewer felt comfortable with awarding Kelly Manchester of Dartmouth the top score in the final round of interviews. “We both had grievous concerns about this candidate,” McDermott said.

Manchester won the job at Probation and remains at the agency today, earning a salary of $66,294. Reached by phone, Manchester declined to say whether she had been Montigny’s girlfriend in 2008 when she applied for a Probation job at the Bristol Probate and Family Court. “I don’t feel comfortable commenting on anything,” she said. Montigny could not be reached for comment.

McDermott was testifying at the federal trial of former Probation commissioner John O’Brien and two of his top aides, Elizabeth Tavares and William Burke III. McDermott, called as a witness by federal prosecutors under a grant of immunity, testified that he was regularly told by his superiors to skew the interview scores so candidates preselected by O’Brien would come out on top.

According to job scores introduced as evidence, Manchester received a total of 46 points during the final interview. A candidate named Edward Woods came in second with 45 points. Woods later also landed a job at Probation.

McDermott said he shared his concerns that “this was bad stuff” with his supervisor Francis Wall and asked to be relieved of conducting the interviews. McDermott said Wall rejected the request, telling him there was no one else to do the interviews.

McDermott said he also shared his concerns with Tavares. “She said don’t worry about it,” McDermott said.

Defense attorneys pressed McDermott on why he didn’t blow the whistle on the hiring process with others at the agency or with outside groups if he was convinced there was wrongdoing. McDermott said he raised his concerns with his supervisors and felt there was nowhere else to go. He also said he didn’t believe his actions constituted a crime.

Under questioning by Assistant US District Attorney Fred Wyshak, McDermott said he decided to keep conducting the interviews because he was only three years on the job with one child in college and another one headed there soon. “Why rock the boat because everyone else seemed to be participating,” he said.

Related: Judge admonishes both sides to stop trying patronage system Through their questioning, defense attorneys tried to suggest that McDermott’s memory of the Manchester interview only materialized after he was given immunity from prosecution by the US Attorney’s office and Wyshak agreed to write a letter to McDermott’s current supervisor at Probation explaining how McDermott was cooperating. McDermott said his job at Probation, where state records indicate he is expected to make nearly $111,000 this year, is on the verge of being terminated. He said he has also been forced to absorb a $20,000 pay cut.

Reading from transcripts, defense attorneys pointed out that, in testimony related to an unsuccessful 2010 state prosecution of O’Brien, McDermott was unable to remember any particulars about Manchester’s hiring, including her name. In his grand jury testimony from June 2011, McDermott said a woman who applied for a probation officer’s job in Taunton or Dighton court (not Bristol, where she actually applied) “was horrible,” but he couldn’t remember the woman’s name or anything else about the case.

McDermott’s memory of Manchester’s hiring improved after a meeting with federal prosecutors on April 23, 2014, where he was shown Manchester’s resume. He said for him the identifier on the case was the fact that the applicant had previously worked as either a bridge or dam operator. When shown Manchester’s resume, which indicated she was working as an administrative assistant at the state Office of Community Correction and previously worked as a substitute teacher and bridge operator for the Dartmouth Department of Public Works, McDermott said everything clicked. “It came back to me like a flash, like it was yesterday,” he said.

McDermott also testified that he was personally close with O’Brien, meeting him at a networking breakfast arranged by Bill Kennedy, an attorney who previously worked for former House speaker Tom Finneran. McDermott described Kennedy, a fellow Holy Cross alum, as a mentor. He said Finneran recommended him for a job at Probation. McDermott also had other Beacon Hill connections: his sister worked for former speaker Sal DiMasi, who is now serving time in prison, and his brother worked for Senate President William Bulger.

Related: DeLeo not told he will testify McDermott said he went to Red Sox games with O’Brien and socialized with the Probation commissioner and his wife. He also testified that, when he suffered a hip injury, O’Brien gave him his pass for a parking spot on Beacon Hill. O’Brien’s attorney said that Robert Mulligan, the chief justice for administration and management at the trial court, tried to get O’Brien fired for lending McDermott the parking pass, but that line of questioning was cut off by objections.

OTHER PROBATION NEWS

One of McDermott’s superiors when he worked in the legal counsel’s office at Probation, Christopher Bulger, the son of former Senate President William Bulger, was seated in the back of the courtroom on Tuesday. Bulger’s appearance in court means he will not be called as a witness in the trial. Bulger raised eyebrows several years ago by feeding information to O’Brien on an investigation of Probation by a special counsel appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court.