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Former CHP officers charged in alleged multi-year overtime fraud scheme
Los Angeles Jul 08, 2021
Photo courtesy of CODE 4, (CC BY-SA 2.0) Flickr
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A half-dozen former California Highway Patrol officers who worked at the East Los Angeles station were charged Thursday in connection with an alleged multi-year overtime fraud scheme.
The charges stem from an internal criminal investigation launched by the CHP in May 2018 into overtime fraud that allegedly occurred between Jan. 1, 2016, and March 31, 2018, while officers were assigned to provide protection details for Caltrans workers, according to a statement released by the California Attorney General’s Office.
Rather than recording the three to four hours actually worked at a detail, an officer would allegedly record and receive pay for eight hours of overtime, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
“Trust is a fundamental part of effective law enforcement,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in the statement announcing the charges against the officers, who collectively face a total of nearly 100 felony counts.
“I applaud CHP for taking action to investigate and seek accountability for those officers who have allegedly broken the public’s trust,” he said.
The total amount of the allegedly fraudulent overtime hours was $23,418, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
The former officers facing charges are:
- Edmund Zorrilla, who is charged with one count of grand theft and 26 counts of presentation of a false claim between January 2016 and August 2016;
- Giovanni Bembi, who is charged with one count of grand theft and 21 counts of presentation of a false claim between January 2016 and January 2017;
- Luis Manuel Mendoza, who is charged with one count of grand theft and 15 counts of presentation of a false claim between March 2016 and January 2017;
- William Matthew Fountain, who is charged with one count of grand theft and 13 counts of presentation of a false claim between January 2016 and June 2017;
- Connie Marie Guzman, who is charged with one count of grand theft and 12 counts of presentation of a false claim between March 2016 and July 2017; and
- William Preciado, who is charged with one count of grand theft and four counts of presentation of a false claim between August 2016 and December 2017.
The six are set to be arraigned Sept. 2 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
