Brooklyn, NY – The Department of Investigation announced this weekend the arrest of a Brooklyn city marshal’s former clerk on charges of stealing $9,889 that she had collected from six individuals whose cars had been towed for overdue parking fines.
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Patricia Williams, 44, is also charged with falsifying the marshal’s records to conceal the embezzlement, which was carried out between September 2007 and July 2008.
“Embezzlement in a public office and the associated cover-up in its records are crimes and an abuse of trust,” said DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn. “Anyone tempted to skim city funds on the job should stop and consider the consequences, which include loss of employment, arrest, and a possible prison sentence.”
Williams, of Brooklyn, was charged with grand larceny, forgery, and falsifying business records. She faces a maximum prison sentence of seven years.
Williams was employed by City Marshal Jeffrey Rose for 11 years, most recently at his office on Avenue N in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn, until July 2008. At that time she was receiving an annual salary of $41,600.
Her duties included collecting payments from the owners of towed cars, updating the marshal’s computerized towing and payment records, and forwarding the payments for deposit in the marshal’s official account. The marshal then gives those payments to the Department of Finance.
The DOI began to investigate when the owner of a car towed last July by another City marshal called DOF and reported that he should not have been towed because he had already paid his tickets and towing charges three months earlier, in April 2008, in Marshal Rose’s office.
DOF immediately alerted DOI. According to the criminal complaint, DOI’s investigation revealed that Williams had collected that payment of approximately $1,400 in April, recorded it in the computer, and authorized the release of the car, but had not forwarded the money for deposit, instead keeping it and falsely reversing the payment-entry in the computer.
The investigation revealed five additional similar instances where Williams kept car owners’ payments, totaling approximately $8,500, and falsely reversed the payment entries, according to the complaint.
The marshal has replaced those stolen funds, and DOF has applied the car owners’ payments to their tickets.
Instead of indicting her, they should move her to the City’s finance office. Considering the difficult times, they need individuals with such creativity and thinking outside the box.
I met this marshall last week when he threatened to seize my car for two parking tickets. He is as sleazy as the clerk.
I worked for Marshal Rose and he always favored Ms.Williams instead of the people who were more than trustworthy…He always gave her raises and met her demands while neglecting all his other workers..What goes around comes around!!! glad he had to come out of pocket and pay.