Top D.C. cop alleges officer overtime fraud
By: Michael Neibauer
May 10, 2009
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| Inspector Hilton Burton, director of the police department’s Court Liaison Division, claimed in a letter to the D.C. inspector general that 17 officers, detectives or sergeants “have defrauded the District Government out of tens of thousands of dollars.” (Examiner file photo) |
D.C. police officers ripped off taxpayers by claiming phony overtime while assisting in a pair of federal prosecutions, a top department inspector charged in documents obtained by The Examiner.
Inspector Hilton Burton, director of the police department’s Court Liaison Division, claimed in a letter to the D.C. inspector general that 17 officers, detectives or sergeants “have defrauded the District Government out of tens of thousands of dollars.”
He said that “upper levels of the executive command staff … have chosen to ignore and disregard this blatant conduct.”
Burton charged in an April 17 letter that the officers checked in for court on days when their cases weren’t being heard, or were dismissed from court hours earlier than they signed out.
Flags were first raised in February, Burton told the IG, when the 7th District commander reported one of his officers was claiming time for court cases in which he had no involvement.
Burton began a preliminary investigation, he wrote, and found 57 occasions between Jan. 1, 2008, and Feb. 13, 2009, in which the 7th District officer either checked in for a case — an eight-count indictment against an alleged member of the violent 22nd Street
Crew — which wasn’t on the court calendar that day, or checked out hours after the case had adjourned.
The Examiner has elected not to name any individuals Burton accused of fraud, as they have not been charged.
The officer earned more than $15,000 in overtime over a four-month period on one trial, more than double his salary for the same time period, Bur
ton charged.
Burton noted similar “irregularities” from two detectives in a recently concluded 2003 murder case. On Jan. 30, according to Burton, a detective checked out at 2 p.m. even though the matter had ended for the day at 12:53 p.m. He received four hours of overtime, totaling $278.76.
Burton shared his findings with the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, but prosecutors there defended the officers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenn Kirschner told Burton that the 7th District officer “has been a consistent presence throughout” the massive ongoing conspiracy case against the crew.
The police department’s Internal Affairs Bureau rebuffed Burton’s calls for an investigation — Director Jacob Kishter wrote in an April 1 e-mail he didn’t “see the need.”
Burton declined comment on Friday, except to confirm that he had sent the memo.
“I put my signature on it,” he said. “I don’t have anything else to say about it.”
A spokesman for the IG also declined comment. Police Chief Cathy Lanier did not respond to multiple calls for comment.
mneibauer@washingtonexaminer.com
