From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: The former top jail official at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office knew about a pervasive overtime abuse scheme but considered it a software failure rather than a possible violation of Florida law, according to documents released Wednesday.
Hey, wait a second. The Sheriff’s Office released documents? Unbelievable. Here it takes the Escambia County Sheriff weeks to release financial reports. But I digress.
Sheriff’s corrections Lt. Sandra Nealy was charged last week with multiple felonies for allegedly padding her $103,000 salary with more than $43,000 in overtime. She plans to “vigorously” defend herself against the charges, her lawyer said.
Five other supervisors — Sgts. Faulton Kemph, John McCaffrey, Kathy Dent and Edy Velasquez and Lt. George Behar— turned themselves in Wednesday to face official misconduct, organized scheme to defraud and false official statements charges in connection with allegedly claiming lucrative overtime shifts before they became available to the rank and file and in the process defrauding taxpayers out of as much as $350,000. Arrest documents say Kemph got $31,000 in overtime, McCaffrey received $23,500, Dent got $18,800, Velasquez $24,167 and Behar received $10,025.
