A police dispatcher working in the town of Ulster Police department stole lost cash that a citizen found and turned over to police, according to a press release on the department's Facebook page. Then the dispatcher altered a police blotter record to cover it up, according to the town's police chief, Anthony Cruise.
Stacey L. Hommel, a 46-year-old Kingston woman who worked the day shift as a dispatcher in the town's police department, "fraudulently completed an Official Police Blotter related to found property, and stole US Currency in an amount less than $200.00," the press release states.
Hommel has been placed on paid administrative leave and has been charged with felony falsifying business records and misdemeanor misconduct and larceny. An investigation into the theft and coverup was launched on Thursday, Jan. 29 and Hommel was arrested on Monday, Feb. 2, according to the press release.
The Daily Freeman has more:
[A] civilian returned “more than $100 and less than $200” in found cash, the chief said. An investigation found Hommel fraudulently completed an official police blotter related to the found property and then stole the money, he said, declining to release the exact amount of cash stolen.
