South Florida police officer arrested, accused of grand theft, investigators say
.jpg "A South Florida police officer has been arrested, accused of scamming her department out of more than $6,000 for military training she never attended, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Wednesday.")
A South Florida police officer has been arrested, accused of scamming her department out of more than $6,000 for military training she never attended, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Wednesday.
Jacaria Stringer, 25, of Riviera Beach turned herself in Tuesday to the Palm Beach County Jail and was arrested on charges of official misconduct and grand theft for falsifying at least 21 time sheets, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Stringer, an officer with Delray Beach police since February 2020, took 21 days of military leave between March 2020 and August 2021 and provided her supervisor with documentation from the U.S. Army Reserve indicating the dates of the training, according to a probable cause affidavit written by FDLE Special agent Thomas Bacon.
As a result, the police department paid her a total of $6,553.44 for the days she claimed to be on military leave, according to the affidavit. At some point, Delray Beach police officials began questioning the accuracy of Stringer’s submitted time sheets, and “discovered” that Stringer didn’t go to training on any of the days she took military leave, the complaint states. In September 2021, the police department asked FDLE to investigate.
Stringer has been on paid administrative leave since Sept. 18, 2021, according to Delray Beach police.
Investigating falsified time sheets
The complaint doesn’t specifically say what tipped police off that Stringer was stringing them along. It notes that Delray Beach police provided FDLE investigators with an administrative complaint summarizing their internal investigation, which found that Stringer had received multiple “Developmental Counseling Forms” documenting that she hadn’t attended Battle Assembly or Annual Training in 2020 and 2021 for five specific days.
For two of those days, Stringer said she was sick, according to the report. She did not provide any excuse for missing the other mandatory unit training, the complaint states. As a result, Stringer is “undergoing involuntary separation from the U.S. Army Reserve.”
As part of the investigation, Bacon subpoenaed Stringer’s bank to get copies of her bank records and contacted 810th Military Police Company Reserve Administrator Marc Bromley to request attendance records for the days Stringer said she was attending Battle Assembly Training.
He then compared the days she was paid for military leave with the training days. What Bacon found was that Stringer was marked absent from 15 days of training, the complaint states. There was also no scheduled training on six days of her military leave.
Bacon notes that Stringer did not make a statement upon the advice of her legal counsel. No attorney information was listed for Stringer in Palm Beach County court records Wednesday afternoon.
Once the criminal investigation into Stringer by the State Attorney’s Office in Palm Beach County is completed, the police department will resume its administrative investigation, said Delray Beach Police Chief Javaro Sims in an FDLE news release.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 1:00 PM.
