BSO says a deputy received a purse with $1,600, and what he did with it was grand theft
A deputy who has been with the Broward Sheriff’s Office for 20 years has been suspended without pay after his Friday arrest on charges of grand theft and committing a third-degree felony with a weapon.
Online Broward County jail records say Michael Spencer, a 49-year-old South Miami-Dade resident, had posted bond by Saturday morning. Spencer has been with the agency since December 2001.
“We will continue to police ourselves, hold employees accountable for their actions and arrest them when they engage in illegal activity,” Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said in a statement.
As described by BSO, its public corruption unit acted on a tip by making an “undercover integrity check operation” Wednesday night with the help of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Spencer was working a shift at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywoood International Airport in uniform.
The undercover ATF agent, BSO said, posed as a traveler who found a brown purse left in the airport. The ATF agent gave Spencer, who was sitting in a marked BSO car, the story about finding the purse and the purse itself, which contained several items and $1,664 in cash.
BSO says Spencer didn’t turn in the purse or the cash by the 5 a.m. Thursday end of his shift. Instead, the agency says, Spencer threw away everything except the cash, spent $188 of it and left the remaining $1,476 in his BSO car.
