Six current and former Metropolitan Police Department employees stood before a D.C. Superior Court judge Wednesday, Aug. 19, charged with stealing $441,137 in fake overtime pay during 2024.
The defendants, all assigned to MPD's Fifth District administrative office, face counts of first-degree fraud, first-degree theft, forgery and uttering. They are former Sgt. Frantz Fulcher, Officer Dorrie Smith-Cleere, Officer Thomas Krmenec, former Senior Police Officer Bernadette Richardson, former Lt. Peter Sheldon and civilian employee Johnnie Dyer.
Fulcher allegedly collected the largest share: $174,915 for roughly 1,861 fabricated hours out of 2,734 total hours he claimed. Krmenec received $89,478, Smith-Cleere $87,397, Richardson $43,351, Dyer $27,721 and Sheldon $18,272, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The D.C. Office of the Attorney General said the group exploited their administrative roles to forge supervisory signatures on overtime authorization forms, claim overtime while physically outside D.C. during domestic and international travel, submit hours while on annual leave, and use their positions to push fraudulent claims through MPD's Timesheet Manager Application system.
Investigators built the case using body-worn camera footage, GPS and radio records, cell-site location data, license plate reader hits, travel records and network access logs, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
MPD's Internal Affairs Division first flagged the irregularities after noticing unusually high overtime volumes and mismatches between claimed activity and verification data. Four of the defendants were placed on non-full duty status in early 2025; Sheldon retired in March 2025 while under investigation.
"Every day, we rely on law enforcement to uphold the public's trust. These MPD members betrayed that trust by scheming to collect unearned, undeserved income, costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars," U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said when the warrants were announced Aug. 18.
AG Brian Schwalb said Aug. 18 that the six "abused their positions of power, exploiting the District and the residents they took an oath to serve and protect." The case is being prosecuted by Jeremy Morris, chief of the OAG's Fraud and Public Corruption Section, serving as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney.
@cmbrookepinto: "No one is above the law. The fraud allegations against the six MPD officers are a deep betrayal of public trust and a waste of hard-earned taxpayer money. Public corruption will not be tolerated in the District."
Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, posted that reaction on X on Aug. 19.
MPD's Office of Communications declined to comment, directing inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The D.C. Police Union has not publicly responded.
The case highlights broader concerns about overtime spending across D.C.'s public safety agencies, which totaled nearly $220 million last fiscal year, according to a Washington Post editorial citing a recent audit.
No trial date has been publicly announced. The defendants' next court dates were not available as of Thursday, Aug. 20.
