Police

Tamara Sanchez pled not guilty on Dec. 23 to embezzling $108,000 from the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, allegedly to "fund her shopping," acc. to a spokeswoman for the Dist. Attny.

The wife of a Los Angeles County deputy, Sanchez allegedly stole the funds between Feb. 1, 2001 and Nov. 30, 2002, while she worked as a receptionist for the 1,850-member union. Reportedly, she forged signatures and misused a singnature stamp to modify about 80 checks from the union's general acct., not the acct. set aside for families of fallen deputies. Police arrested her on Nov. 19. Union president Wayne Quint fired her shortly after, and she was formally charged with grand theft and falsification of records on Dec. 19. Sanchez faces a maximum punnishment of 5 yrs., 8 mos. in prison if convicted. [Orange County Register 12/21/02]

A former Santa Clara County Sheriffs Lieutenant and ex-union president was indicted August 2 for trading on the union's name to raise funds for sham charities.

According to the indictment by a Santa Clara grand jury, Armand Tiano and 12 alleged co-conspirators engaged in grand theft, tax evasion and money laundering that involved at least $1.4 million. Among the false charities were two created after the 1998 slaying of Millbrae police officer David Chetcuti. Allegedly, Tiano and the others persuaded many people to write checks for the "Officer Chetcuti Fund" and the "Millbrae Officer Family Trust Fund." The widow, Gail Chetcuti, never received any of those funds.

In his heyday, Tiano oversaw the county jails, presided over the Santa Clara Deputy Sheriffs Assn; and twice campaigned for Sheriff. In 1993, Tiano incorporated his own fund-raising group, the Deputy Sheriiffs' Sports Assn, and contracted with two brothers, George and Matthew Kellner, who already owed the union $100,000 in charity fund-raising. The brothers then began paying off Tiano from the ostensible charity to take advantage of "his official position and contacts" acc. to the indictment.

Geri E. Abbe, ex-office secretary for Ass'n of Western Pulp & Paper Workers Local 5 in Camas, Wash., pled guilty Mar. 22 to one count of embezzling $15,690.80 in union funds. The U.S. Atty.'s Office in Tacoma brought the charges on Feb. 22. The case has been assigned to U.S. Dist. Judge Franklin D. Burgess (W.D. Wash., Clinton).

According to the plea agreement, between Feb. 1998 and June 2001, Abbe was Local 5's office secretary, and her duties included filling out payroll vouchers.  On 16 occasions she embezzled funds through bogus payroll  claims. For example, on Feb. 18, 1998, she submitted a payroll voucher in which sought pay for 70 hours of work during the one-week period ending on that date. However, in truth, she worked only 35 hours during that period. After securing an offical's signature, Abbe issued the fraudulent check to herself. She embezzled $14,245 via this scheme.

Stone Park (Ill.) Mayor Robert Natale has been accused by federal prosecutors of shaking down drivers when he was a cop and taking mob payoffs as mayor. But that hasn't stopped a local police union from endorsing Natale in his re-election bid--because he has been tough on crime, the union says. Stone Park residents received a letter last week from the Ill. Council of Police & Sheriffs, which represents Stone Park officers, endorsing the mayor and his slate of candidates for election Apr. 3.

Norm Frese, boss of the tiny union,  said he had no problem endorsing the mayor, who awaits trial in federal court with alleged West Side and DuPage County mob boss Anthony Centracchio and two others. Natale, mayor since 1989, insists he is innocent.

The union letter says State Police data show crime was down in Stone Park in 2000 by 67% from 1999. The only problem: The number is wrong. The crime rate was down, but not as much as the union and Natale say, based on numbers the village provided. The crime rate for 2000 was down 22.3%, according to the measure commonly accepted by criminologists.