A Detroit Police Officer accused of stealing more than $26,000 in reward money from a police tip line stood silently in 16th District Court in Livonia this morning as a judge ordered his case to circuit court.
Officer Stevie Perry, 39, of Detroit, a 14-year law enforcement veteran, said before the 9:30 a.m. hearing he did not want to talk about the case. He faces five felony charges, the most serious of which -- uttering and publishing -- includes a possible 14-year prison sentence for a conviction.
"Any and all issues will be tried in court," his lawyer, Paul Bernier of Royal Oak, a retired Wayne County assistant prosecutor, said after the three-minute hearing in front of Judge Sean P. Kavanagh. Bernier waived the preliminary examination and Perry was again released on a personal bond pending a hearing in two weeks in Third Circuit Court in Detroit.
According to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, Perry deposited reward checks from an auto-theft tip line into his personal bank account between June 2007 and November 2008.
Perry is charged with uttering and publishing; using a computer to commit a crime; identity theft; committing a crime under false pretenses, and misconduct in office. Assigned to investigate auto thefts for the past five years, Perry has been suspended without pay since March.
After the charges were announced against Perry in July, the Detroit Police Officers Association went to court in an attempt to fight the release of Perry’s booking photo to the Free Press. The union claimed the photo was part of Perry’s personnel file and that a collective-bargaining agreement prevented the city from releasing it.
The Michigan Court of Appeals, however, disagreed and ordered the city to release the image.
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http://www.detnews.com/article/20090929/METRO01/909290391/1409/METRO
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