Six sheriff deputies charged in overtime scheme www.privateofficer.com

Six sheriff deputies charged in overtime scheme http://www.privateofficer.com

Palm Beach Fla. May 30 2008

Six Palm Beach County deputies accused of taking part in an overtime scheme that defrauded taxpayers out of about $350,000 have been released from jail after posting bond, records show.Corrections Sgts. Faulton Kemph, John McCaffrey, Kathy Dent and Edy Velasquez, and Lts. George Behar and Darrin McCray each posted a $6,000 bond Wednesday night.They are charged with official misconduct, organized scheme to defraud and making false official statements in connection with allegedly claiming lucrative overtime shifts before they became available to rank and file deputies.Arrest documents show Kemph got $31,000 in overtime, McCaffrey received $23,500, Dent got $18,000, Velasquez $24,167 and Behar $10,025.
Sheriff’s corrections Lt. Sandra Nealy was charged last week with several felonies for allegedly padding her $103,000 salary with more than $43,000 in overtime.

Nealy will defend herself against the charges, her attorney said.The former top jail official at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office knew about a pervasive overtime abuse scheme but considered it a software failure rather than a possible violation of Florida law, according to documents released Wednesday.

Then-Col. Keith Chambers ignored his assistants’ suggestions that “examples” should be made of jail supervisors who violated overtime policies for guarding hospitalized inmates, a Sheriff’s Office internal affairs investigation found.He failed to “recognize the severity of the issues” associated with the scheme and allowed “further and continued violation to occur,” the investigation determined.But Chambers won’t be punished, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said, even though internal affairs found a “preponderance” of evidence showing that he failed to perform his duties and responsibilities.Chambers, 51, accepted a $320,600 buyout package and retired in October, just weeks after the Sheriff’s Office launched its extensive criminal investigation.Reached at his home Wednesday, Chambers said his retirement had nothing to do with the criminal investigation.”I was ready to go,” he said.Bradshaw, who directly oversaw Chambers, said he did not force Chambers out. He credited the colonel with improving, among other things, the jail’s medical services and mental health unit.”My sense is that he saw where all of this was headed,” Bradshaw said. “There wasn’t a mystery on what was happening.”Other jail commanders already have been penalized in connection with the alleged overtime scheme .Maj. Christopher Kneisley got a five-day suspension without pay and Maj. Tammy Waldrop a three-day suspension for knowing about the manipulation of the overtime and failing to prevent further abuses, the internal affairs investigation determined.

Lt. Eddie Jones got a six-day suspension without pay for failing to conduct a complete and thorough inquiry, the investigation determined.The overtime system was designed to minimize costs and to benefit deputies because they have the lowest salaries, Bradshaw said.By grabbing overtime shifts for themselves and friends, the seven accused sergeants and lieutenants cost taxpayers more because of their higher rate of pay.
Chambers’ assistants knew about the alleged abuse as far back as June 2006, the internal affairs investigation found.But the corrections department didn’t officially begin looking into the matter until receiving a jail sergeant’s complaint six months later.

Within weeks of receiving the complaint, Chambers took away overtime sign-up privileges for Nealy, the alleged ringleader, as well as for two other lieutenants, according to the internal affairs investigation.He took the step “to keep [Nealy] from getting into trouble,” Nealy’s arrest report said.
Yet for reasons sheriff’s investigators haven’t been able to explain, Chambers reinstated those privileges for Nealy just three weeks later, the arrest report said.Not long after that, Nealy continued “the same type of manipulation” that she had done before, the report said.Jones submitted his inquiry to Kneisley in March 2007 without finding a need for a broad criminal investigation, the internal affairs investigation found.T

he complaint eventually landed in the agency’s financial crimes unit, which launched a criminal investigation on Sept. 7.Chambers “didn’t go as far as he should have in being vigorous in pursing this investigation,” Bradshaw said.Chambers, a 27-year Sheriff’s Office employee who earned $153,000, submitted his letter of resignation on Sept. 27 and left the agency on Oct. 31.He was paid $134,000 for unused vacation and sick time and longevity pay, records show. He got another $186,600 as an incentive for retiring.

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