Ex-California Highway Patrol Officers Charged in Fraud Scheme

A group of ex-California officers are collectively facing nearly 100 felonies in connection to a multi-year fraud scheme.

According to CBS Los Angles, the former California Highway Patrol officers are accused of exaggerating their overtime between Jan. 1, 2016 and March 31, 2018. During that time, the officers reportedly bilked the state out of $23,418.27. California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the 97 criminal charges Thursday, and identified the defendants as Giovanni Bembi, Connie Marie Guzman, William Preciado, Edmund Zorilla, Luis Manuel Mendoza, and William Matthew Fountain—all of whom were working out of the East Los Angeles station.

“Trust is a fundamental part of effective law enforcement,” Bonta said in a press release. “Californians should be able to depend on CHP officers to keep our roads and highways safe, and when officers don’t adhere to the law themselves, it erodes our communities’ trust. I applaud CHP for taking action to investigate and seek accountability for those officers who have allegedly broken the public’s trust.”

Officials launched an investigation into possible overtime fraud in May 2018, after command staff in the East LA officer came across irregularities in the officers’ timesheets. The probe led investigators to believe that a group of officers had been padding their overtime hours while providing protection for highway construction workers.

“For instance, rather than recording the three to four hours actually worked at a detail, an officer would allegedly record and receive pay for eight hours of overtime,” wrote the AG office, which claimed the officers’ supervisors knowingly signed off on the bogus overtime hours.