Month: February 2023

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) today announced the completion of a Roadmap for Implementation for the Columbus Division of Police (CDP), the result of targeted technical assistance that was provided to CDP at the request of the city of Columbus, Ohio. The report is a summary of that technical assistance and is designed to be a roadmap to build a foundation for reform.

The areas of examination covered in the Roadmap represent the scope of work as agreed to by the Department of Justice and the city, and includes policy reviews and associated training, recruitment, technology, staffing and leadership training. Specifically, the technical assistance team reviewed the organizational structure of several units within the division; examined the division’s technology, including how the division’s IT infrastructure relates to other city systems; and offered specific ideas on how to enhance CDP’s engagement with the community it serves.

Upon receiving the Roadmap, city and CDP officials initiated a request for an independent review of CDP’s use of force policies and practices, and based on recommendations in the report, a technology assessment and assistance with the design and development of pro-active problem-solving strategies. The COPS Office has agreed to undertake such a review and that work will begin immediately.

“The Justice Department, through our COPS Office, is proud to work with police departments seeking to improve and learn from best practices in the field,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “The city’s request to expand its engagement with COPS to review additional areas, including CDP’s use of force policies, is an important step that will benefit both CDP and the community.”

“The roadmap we have shared with CDP and the assistance we have provided will help the department in its collaborative efforts to enhance public safety. We commend the CDP for reaching out to the Department of Justice and for working diligently alongside the COPS Office in this process,” said Hugh T. Clements, Jr.,  Director of the COPS Office. “We look forward to continuing to partner with CDP as we begin the additional assistance that has been requested, and we know that both the department and the community will be well-served by all of this work in the months and years ahead.”

The COPS Office is the federal component of the Department of Justice responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. The only department of Justice agency with policing in its name, the COPS Office was established in 1994 and has been the cornerstone of the nation’s crime fighting strategy with grants, a variety of knowledge resource products, and training and technical assistance. Through the years, the COPS Office has become the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies across the country and continues to listen to the field and provide the resources that are needed to reduce crime and build trust between law enforcement and the communities served. The COPS Office has been appropriated more than $20 billion to advance community policing, including grants awarded to over 13,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to fund the hiring and redeployment of more than 136,000 officers.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

A man who attempted to fraudulently acquire more than $92,000 worth of commercial products from a California-based company pleaded guilty in federal court, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.

By the time the fraudulent activity was discovered, the defendant had obtained products valued at $27,991.01 without paying for them.

On Tuesday, Wayne Allen Baker, 53, of Bixby, pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

According to court documents, Baker admitted that he devised and carried out a scheme to defraud the national commercial products distributor, which sells plumbing supplies, waterworks and fire and fabrication products.

As part of his scheme, Baker told the company that he was acting on behalf of a corporation based out of Dallas, abbreviated in court documents as EMI. Baker altered EMI’s name by inserting a hyphen, thus making it appear legitimate. Baker then set up online accounts with the California company where he falsely represented that he was acting on behalf of EMI as their chief executive officer. Using the fraudulently created EMI accounts, Baker ordered products from the California company worth a total of $92,098.25 and directed the goods to be delivered to his residence in Bixby and to a separate location in Tulsa. Between April 14 and April 28, 2020, Baker submitted approximately 59 internet orders for the equipment items. Baker initially made the orders appear legitimate, in part, by making bogus partial online payments to the company. Ultimately, Baker only received a portion of the products that he fraudulently ordered.

The FBI, U.S. Secret Service, and Bixby Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard M. Cella is prosecuting the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On February 6, 2023, Leslie D. Bethea, 30, currently of Surgoinsville, TN, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville. 

On June 14, 2022, the Federal Grand Jury indicted Bethea for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements. Bethea agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 and one count of making a false statement to her United States probation officer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001.  Following Bethea’s imprisonment, she will be on supervised release for three years.  Bethea was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $20,805 on account of her theft.

According to filed court documents, Bethea was previously sentenced to prison for 24-months for wire fraud in United States v. Leslie Bethea, Case No. 2:18-CR-25 in the Eastern District of Tennessee.  Upon her release from the Bureau of Prisons on October 8, 2020, Bethea began serving a term of supervised release that required her to submit truthful monthly reports to her supervising probation officer.

On March 29, 2021, Bethea obtained a fraudulent Payroll Protection Program (“PPP”) loan in the amount of $20,805.  The fraudulent PPP loan application stated that Bethea had made $99,835 during calendar year 2019 (a year when Bethea was in prison), falsely claimed that Bethea had not been convicted of any fraud offenses during the past five years and attached a fraudulent income tax Schedule C as proof of her claim that she made $99,835.

A PPP loan was approved based on Bethea’s fraudulent application, and Bethea received $20,805 on April 15, 2021.  Bethea used a portion of the fraudulent loan proceeds to pay for a five-day junket at a resort in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida.  She also used some of the fraudulent loan proceeds to pay for an elective cosmetic surgical procedure in Florida while there. 

Upon her return to Tennessee, Bethea then submitted a false monthly supervision report to her probation officer for the month of April 2021.  In that report, Bethea falsely claimed she had only received $200 during the month of April, falsely claimed she had no expenses of more than $500 (even though she paid more than that amount to the Sunny Isles Beach resort and the plastic surgery practice while in Florida), and falsely stated that she had not travelled out of the state of Tennessee during the month of April 2021.    

U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee; and Resident Agent in Charge Jason B. Brown of the United States Secret Service made the announcement. 

This prosecution was the result of an investigation by the United States Secret Service.  This investigation was led by Senior Special Agent Thomas Whitehead.

Assistant United States Attorney Mac D. Heavener represented the United States.

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