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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former police officer in Salt Lake City has pleaded guilty to a felony and a misdemeanor in a plea deal on allegations that he faked DUI reports as part of a scheme to collect thousands of dollars of overtime illegally.
Stephen Hall, 44, pleaded guilty Monday to felony theft by deception and misdemeanor falsifying a government record. Two other misdemeanor counts of falsifying a government record were dropped in exchange for his pleas, the Deseret News reported (http://tinyurl.com/nx8nmhv).
Hall reported to his supervisors in 2012 that he made 27 DUI arrests, issued 398 citations and impounded 27 vehicles while working shifts funded by the state as part of a DUI grant. The grant allowed officers to work overtime hours to conduct DUI patrol, and the state would later reimburse the department for those hours.
Unified Police Department supervisors later discovered he only made one DUI arrest and issued only four citations. Investigators say he fabricated as many as 50 cases.
"None of the manufactured cases involved a real person but contained fictitious information," according to the charges.
Further investigation and comparison of various timecards dating back to January 2010 showed that Hall reported he was working his regular Unified police shift or at his part-time job doing security at a local hospital or state liquor store at the same time he claimed to be working a DUI shift, the charges state. In some cases, he was "clocked-in" at three jobs at once, according to prosecutors.
The result was that from 2010 to 2013, he was "double paid" approximately $14,000 for overlapping shifts, prosecutors said.
Hall was placed on administrative leave in January 2013. The 20-year veteran eventually retired in May as the investigation was ongoing.
Sentencing in the case has been set for June 2.
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Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com
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