How can we trust Overland Park police accused of misusing charity funds? We can’t | Opinion

The Kansas City Star Editorial Board
·4 min read
1

After a slow-moving, 17-month investigation, we recently learned four Overland Park Police officers wouldn’t face criminal charges for misusing charity funds.

But we must question whether police officers Brandon Faber, Brad Heater, Rachel Scattergood and Tim Tinnin can be trusted to protect and serve the Overland Park community. How could they?

Misappropriating funds meant to assist police officers killed or injured in the line of duty and their families is a serious breach of the public’s trust. Overland Park City Manager Lori Curtis Luther, the City Council and Mayor Curt Skoog must act with urgency to determine these officers’ future with the city. All four remain on leave, officials said this week.

We challenge leaders to move swiftly and decisively. Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe’s inquiry into how the officers lavishly spent money from the Overland Park Police Officers Foundation went on far too long.

Why did it take Howe almost a year and a half to tell us he couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt the officers knowingly misused funds anyway?

In May 2022, the officers were accused of mishandling money while serving on the foundation’s board. They spent almost 18 months on paid leave, costing Overland Park residents hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay the officers’ salaries while off duty. None of them deserves another dime from taxpayers.

Overland Park officials must be expedient — in a statement sent via email, they told us they would — in determining if the officers involved violated the police department’s professional code of conduct or city policy. Any officer found to have knowingly misspent donations intended for their fallen brethren surely doesn’t deserve to wear a badge.

Forensic auditor shocked no one charged

Tom Gottschalk is a former investigator with the Johnson County district attorney’s office. White-collar crimes was his charge. He was hired by the Overland Park Police Officers Foundation to conduct a forensic audit of its books. Those findings, forwarded to Howe’s office last May, were impetus for the criminal investigation.

Because of an agreement with the Overland Park Police Officers Foundation, Gottschalk was limited in what he could discuss about his findings. In an email, he told us that based on his investigation and experience, he questioned how the officers avoided criminal liability.

Collectively, the officers spent more than $15,000 on personal expenses, according to Howe, and regularly disregarded the foundation’s bylaws.

“I’m shocked no one will be charged,” Gottschalk told us Tuesday. “I’ve worked dozens of cases like this before, and no-charging this case is not consistent with my previous experience with these types of cases.”

In a follow-up email the next day, Gottschalk said he’s worked two embezzlement cases where a board member of a charitable organization converted the organization’s funds to personal use.

Both cases, he wrote, ended up with felony convictions.

District Attorney Howe announced this week that the officers’ behavior as board members with the foundation was not aboveboard, but did not amount to a crime.

Civil servants using money earmarked for charity as their personal slush fund should disturb us all. Among other questionable acts, Howe’s office concluded:

  • Officers enriched themselves by violating charity bylaws.

  • Under the officers’ leadership, the charity failed to maintain financial records.

  • The officers’ electronic devices related to police foundation business were wiped clean.

  • None of the officers spoke to investigators from Howe’s office about how they spent charity funds.

According to Howe’s report released this week, the quartet siphoned funds from the foundation to pay for scholarships for themselves and out-of-state travel. Money that was supposed to be dedicated to assisting officers and their families following “catastrophic injury or death” went to dental and veterinarian bills, according to Howe’s report.

Because of insufficient record keeping on the officers’ part, prosecutors could not determine if they intended to commit a crime, Howe wrote. How convenient.

“The available evidence, however, does not support prosecution for theft beyond a reasonable doubt,” Howe wrote.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office will determine if state finance laws governing charities were violated, according to Howe.

Yes, the officers in question may have skirted legal trouble for now. But we can’t be certain of these officers’ ability to serve the public.