A Houston Police Department wide investigation has been launched after it was discovered that police officers were falsifying information on tickets they were issuing. The falsification came in the form of listing officers not present during the offense on tickets, thereby allowing them to draw additional overtime pay by appearing in court later. The activity was discovered when an off duty police officer was issued a ticket and made the discovery.
“I immediately [knew] that something’s hinky with the ticket,” the man KHOU-TV only identified as Jerry said. “There was no other officer, he was the only officer there.”
The “ticket-rigging scheme,” was originally reported by KHOU-TV out of Houston. Since then the Houston Police Department has begun conducting its own internal investigation into the issue and has put three officers on desk jobs during this time: Gregory Rosa, Robert Manzanales and John Garcia.
KHOU reported that a fourth officer identified as Rudolph Farias, also being investigated, committed suicide earlier this week in a police-parking garage. The 51-year-old was on the force for 21 years and, according to KHOU, made $158,000 in overtime within the past three years. How much of that could be due to falsely reported tickets is unknown at this time.
Watch KHOU’s report about the investigation:
