A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has dismissed charges of criminal fraud and wage theft against 48 California Highway Patrol officers who were charged with an overtime fraud scheme at East Station LA, the state attorney general’s office announced Thursday.
The judge’s actions end the vast majority of the 54 California Atty cases. General Rob Bonta announced in February against former and current CHP officers.
As part of the deal, the officers agreed to participate in a diversion program and met the terms, including paying restitution. None of the agents, who had argued they were following longstanding practices within the agency, admitted guilt.
The charges come three years after the CHP relieved dozens of officers working at the East LA train station after investigators gathered evidence they had exaggerated the number of hours worked on details protection for Caltrans workers doing repairs on the highway. So many officers were discharged that the agency had to recruit much of the station.
Judge Ronald S. Coen made the diversion offer to the 54 current and former officers last month over objection from prosecutors, according to the attorney general’s office.
He proposed reducing all crimes and allowing officers to participate in a diversion program that would require them to fully repay any money the state claims they received illegally. According to the attorney general’s office, 50 of 54 accepted and had various compliance dates.
Two of the four agents who initially did not accept the diversion agreement later accepted it, and one of them completed the program and paid restitution. The other officer remains in diversion, with a progress report set on the court schedule for June 5.
On Thursday, Coen formally dismissed nine of the officers’ cases, bringing the total number of defendants whose cases were dismissed through diversion to 48, according to the attorney general’s office.
Only two of the 54 cases are being investigated for a preliminary hearing, the dates of which will be set in February.
At one point, the 54 officers faced a combined 302 counts, including robbery charges and submitting a fraudulent claim. The total amount of fraudulent overtime was $226,556. At the start of this year, only 11 of the officers were still employed by the CHP and had been placed on administrative leave.
The cases stemmed from a CHP investigation launched in May 2018 into overtime fraud that allegedly took place between January 1, 2016 and March 31, 2018.
Officers were accused of increasing their overtime when tasked with providing protective details to the California Department of Transportation, for which they were paid through the Maintenance Area’s Enhanced Enforcement Program or of the Construction Zone Enhanced Enforcement Program. Both are designed to protect workers who maintain highways. Dozens of Caltrans workers have been killed and hundreds injured over the years, mostly victims of errant motorists who rammed into work crews on freeways.
According to Bonta, an officer would register and receive pay for eight overtime hours rather than the three to four hours actually worked at a detail. The job usually involves sitting in a cruiser at the end of a construction zone to make sure motorists don’t get too close.
In addition to the alleged main scheme, three of the former officers were charged with logging false hours to patrol the carpool lanes. According to Bonta’s allegations, officers fabricated false warnings and driver assistance reports to support their overtime claims.
Former district of LA County. Atti. Steve Cooley, who represents many officers in civil litigation, has repeatedly said they are innocent.
“Bonta doesn’t know what he’s doing when it comes to these cases. He’s being misrepresented by the assistant attorneys general handling the case,” Cooley said. [that] the conduct of the California Highway Patrol is unacceptable, they are selectively prosecuting and firing a station all because of a legitimate work grievance, and that this is retaliation of biblical proportions.
