CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (WSVN) -- Three Coral Springs Police Officers and former executive board members of the Coral Springs Police Union were charged Thursday on grand theft and organized scheme to defraud charges.
Friday morning, two of the officers under scrutiny, Michael Hughes and Sherry Williams turned themselves in at the Broward County Jail. Also arrested: Sherry Williams' husband, officer Douglas Williams. He turned himself in and bonded out of jail Thursday. The other two bonded out later on Friday.
Retired in 2009, Douglas Williams started to collect his pension. He remained on the force part-time-- taking prisoners to jail.
According to the Broward County State Attorney's Office, from January 2006 to December 2011, the officers used credit cards belonging to the police union for unauthorized ATM withdrawals as well as charges to bars, restaurants and other stores.
Douglas Williams was charged with one count of grand theft. According to a police report, he is accused of using a police union credit card to pay for 10 personal expenses, including $409 at Loews and a cash withdrawal for $300. The grand total of his expenses amounted to $1,584.
Once the charges came down, Lieutenant Joe McHugh of the Coral Springs Police Department, said, "Doug Williams was removed from the part-time officer program."
Sherry Williams, a fraud detective and the wife of Douglas Williams, was charged with six counts of grand theft and one count of organized scheme to defraud. She is accused of spending over $30,000 of the union's money, including the shipping of a $400 chair to her father's house.
Both Douglas and Sherry Williams turned in their resignations to the police department Thursday.
Michael Hughes, who is also a detective, has been charged with four counts of grand theft and one count of organized scheme to defraud. He is accused of spending $10,000 of the union's money and has been suspended with pay pending a meeting with the city manager in the coming days.
McHugh shed light on how much access the officers had to the funds. "Members of the executive board, they have credit cards that they're able to go ahead and purchase stuff for the union or purchase stuff that, you know, like to go to lunch," he said.
McHugh also reinforced that these allegations should not reflect their duties as officers but rather their duties as executive board union members. "The community needs to know that these are allegations that will have their time in court. The most important thing is, their performance as police officers had nothing to do with these allegations. These allegations are as their positions as executive board members on our union," he said.
The investigation launched in 2013. It was sparked by a random audit by the IRS which flagged the questionable transactions.
The FOP President Glenn Matonak released a statement. It reads in part: "In the law enforcement community, we consider ourselves brothers and sisters of our fellow co-workers and to discover that our leaders were stealing money from us is such a huge betrayal of trust."
There are a total of 13 grand theft charges listed in the affidavit. If convicted on these charges, Sherry Williams could receive a maximum of 70 years in Florida state prison. Her husband could see a maximum of five years and Hughes could see a max of 35 years in Florida State prison.
