Wednesday, August 13, 2008

3rd Chicago cop charged in insurance fraud case

Story via another blog from Steve Bartin at Newsalert named Overpaid Government Worker.

A widening federal probe into cops taking payoffs tied to insurance or towing scams has led to fraud charges against a third officer.

The probe could reach at least a dozen police officers, sources have said.

On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Chicago Police Officer Scott Campbell, 42, with setting up a scheme to make it look as if someone had stolen his 1996 green Volkswagen Passat.

Federal prosecutors say Campbell arranged to have the car taken and sold in pieces. State Farm Insurance paid Campbell about $4,000 for what they believed was a stolen vehicle.

"I expect we will be able to resolve Mr. Campbell's matter short of trial," his lawyer Jeffrey Steinback said. "Scott is a fundamentally good man who is going to confront his problems directly and honestly."

Joseph DeMichael, 43, of Chicago, was charged with scheming with Campbell by taking the car home, dismantling it and selling the parts.

Campbell and DeMichael are new defendants in an existing case involving Chicago Police Officer Joseph Grillo and Collision Towing owner Jim "Meatball" Athans. Grillo and Athans were charged with helping Campbell carry out the insurance scam. Grillo and Campbell have been relieved of their police powers, department spokeswoman Monique Bond said.

The new charges mark a widening of an ongoing federal probe into alleged bribe-taking by police officers.

I just want to say that not all police officers engage in this activity.

No comments:

Post a Comment

PLEASE READ FIRST!!!! Comment Moderating and Anonymous Comment Policy

While anonymous comments are not prohibited we do encourage you to help readers identify you so that other commenters may respond to you. Either read the moderating policy for how or leave an identifier (which could be a nickname for example) at the end of the comment.

Also note that this blog is NOT associated with any public or political officials including Alderman Roderick T. Sawyer!