Former southwest Illinois cop admits to collecting $60,000 in pay by faking timecards
A former Alorton police officer pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday afternoon to collecting approximately $60,000 in fraudulent pay by lying about the time he was on duty.
Ricky Perry, who also was previously employed by the East St. Louis Police Department, admitted in the U.S. District Court for Southern Illinois to falsifying time cards between May 2018 and April of 2021.
In April, FBI agents served a federal search warrant at Alorton City Hall and removed boxes of personal records.
According to court records, agents compared Perry’s time cards with GPS records on the patrol cars he used after clocking in for duty. They identified approximately 4,000 hours of conflicting time where Perry traveled outside the Alorton jurisdiction, usually to go to his East St. Louis home.
Embezzling money from a unit of government that receives federal funds carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and restitution, according to a release from the court. Before being consolidated into the new Cahokia Heights, the Village of Alorton received federal funding, including more than $82,000 in Coronavirus Relief Funds.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 26.
Perry was hired as a patrol officer in Alorton in August of 2017.
Steven Weinhoeft, U.S. Attorney for Southern Illinois, called the former village “a high crime area that is served by very dedicated police officers.” He said Perry violated a public trust, but that his crime should not detract from the confidence in and the important work of police officers as a whole.
“The Metro-East police departments are staffed by many such officers, and this guilty plea should not undermine the public’s confidence in the work of law enforcement as a whole,” he said in a statement. “This case shows that law enforcement will police their own, and that officers are held accountable when they violate the law.”
The investigation was conducted by the Southern Illinois Public Corruption Task Force which is made up of FBI and Illinois State Police agents.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman R.Smith prosecuted the case.
