A Florida police officer was arrested Tuesday, Dec. 16, and charged with 79 counts of official misconduct and one count of organized fraud after a year-long investigation into unpaid vendor accounts revealed fake officer off-duty jobs.
According to a release from the SPD, Ronny Neal, the department’s off-duty detail coordinator and a 22-year veteran of the force, had been making up off-duty details for nearly a year and charging the city of Sanford on his time sheet for working them.
“Betrayed and disgusted do not come close to describing how I feel,” Sanford Police Chief Cecil E. Smith said in the release. “He chose day after day to lie, cheat, and steal from the community he took an oath to serve and protect, using his badge as a shield to hide his criminal acts. He has single-handedly tarnished the hard work and trust that the men and women of this agency have worked years to build and strengthen…