OAG reviewing evidence for possible prosecution

Clement Bermudes

The Office of the Attorney General continues to review the case of 14 Department of Public Safety officers who have been accused of acquiring hundreds of hours in illegal overtime.

DPS Commissioner Clement Bermudes said that, as of last week, 14 officers of the original 28 remain on administrative duty as the illegal OT investigation continue.

At this point, Bermudes said, the OAG criminal division is reviewing the evidence from the investigation and will decide whether to prosecute these individuals.

“With the 14 remaining, we’re in coordination with the Attorney General’s Office who is actually reviewing the files before they are prosecuted. They’ll determine whether to charge them or not based on the facts and evidences in these cases. Those remain pending. [However] as you know, the Office of the Attorney General is bombarded with cases,” he said.

“The remaining 14 [are still] under investigation and they remain on administrative duty. They cannot participate in any law enforcement functions at this time,” Bermudes added.

Should any of the remaining officers be found unqualified to return to duty, Bermudes said in a previous interview that criminal charges will likely be filed against them.

“If they don’t qualify to return to full duty, then more than likely criminal charges will be filed against those officers,” he said.

Meanwhile, when asked about any resignations, Bermudes said it’s looking like one of the 14 remaining intends to resign.

“One is looking at resigning but once I can confirm that, we will let the community know,” he said.

Back in May, Bermudes reinstated 11 of 28 police officers he had previously placed on administrative duty pending an investigation into alleged unjustified overtime hours incurred. Unfortunately, three of the 28 who were on administrative duty had resigned before the investigation had concluded.

He said this investigation is part of his overall goal to rebuild trust within the community and department through transparency and equality.

Last year, the transition team assigned to DPS determined that the department requested approval for over 11,000 hours of overtime—roughly one year and a half’s’ worth of regular work hours—in just one pay period in December.

More specifically, the transition report noted that a whopping 11,127.25 overtime hours were requested for the pay period from Dec. 4, 2022, to Dec. 17, 2022.

In addition, the transition team also stated that upon review of timesheets and OT requests from January 2022 to January 2023, it found that DPS has been paying out excessive OT accruals for the same group of officers, some higher-ranking officers and certain lower ranking ones as well—specific to certain sections.

The transition team found that, of the over 11,000 hours in overtime, about 4,000 OT hours, roughly about five and a half months of regular hours, were requested for 40 officers who were allegedly part of former DPS commissioner Robert Guerrero’s “inner circle.”

The transition report said there is reason to believes that possible fraud and theft of government time was committed.