ELPD Investigating Alleged Theft and Embezzlement by City Employee

The East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) has issued a statement confirming ELi’s reporting that police are investigating alleged theft and embezzlement by a person who was a City employee at the time.

ELDP’s statement indicates, “The suspect is no longer an employee of the City.”

ELi is not naming the suspect at this time because we are awaiting confirmation of that information.

The individual, who worked in the City’s parking department, is said by a tipster to have stolen a laptop from Lost and Found and also to have embezzled money.

The laptop belonged to a private person, not to the City.

The parking system handles large amounts of cash on MSU home game days, when many lots are turned into flat-rate parking lots.

ELi has been told that there was a video of the laptop theft but that the video was lost because a supervisor did not act quickly to report the incident.

The laptop theft occurred on Sept. 14 and was reported to the police on Sept. 24. The alleged embezzlement was reported to police on October 9.

We asked ELPD to explain why the Sept. 24 investigation by police did not show up in the published weekly police report of investigations, although the October 9 investigation did.

Deputy Chief Steve Gonzalez explained by email that "there are legitimate reasons why a report may be delayed in getting picked up in the weekly Case and Arrest Summary we publish." He said that "this most often occurs when an officer or civilian employee is still working on the report. This causes the report to be in an 'in progress' or 'transcription' status and therefore will not be picked up and included when a weekly Case and Arrest Summary is generated."

That happened with the Sept. 24 investigation of the laptop theft.

Gonzalez added that, "In order to correct for this, we have begun releasing our Case and Arrest Summaries on Wednesdays instead of Mondays. This allows for two additional days for reports to be completed and in a status that allows for the report to be picked up by the Case and Arrest Summary. This becomes particularly important when our report load is high, such as in the fall."

That change, recently instituted, will mean that more investigations make it into the weekly report, increasing transparency and providing the public with more information.

Today's statement about the alleged thefts explains why more information has not been released in this particular case: “The investigation is ongoing at this time. After the conclusion of the investigation, the police will present its findings to the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office as part of a complaint and warrant request.”

According to the statement, “Additional information will be released after arraignment and in conjunction with the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office,” and not before that, “so as not to jeopardize a criminal prosecution.”

Note: This article was upated at 2:30 p.m. to include the additional information from Deputy Chief Steve Gonzalez.