Detroit police officer under investigation for embezzlement, sources say

DETROIT (WXYZ) - The Action News Investigators have learned that another Detroit police officer has been suspended for allegedly embezzling city money.

It’s the second officer to be suspended for suspected fraud in two months, and this time it involves tens of thousands of dollars in a police department seriously strapped for cash.

Officer Kim Mosby Colbert is suspended with pay while internal affairs conducts a criminal investigation.

Investigators suspect that Mosby Colbert embezzled over $70,000 over the last three-and-a-half years.

Mosby Colbert was the timekeeper at the Southwest District, keeping track of the hours worked by all of the officers who work there. Investigators suspect Mosby Colbert was doing some creative bookkeeping on her own time sheets to fleece Detroit taxpayers.
When Action News Investigator Scott Lewis caught up with the suspended officer she denied any wrongdoing.

“Did you embezzle some money from the Detroit Police Department,” Lewis asked?

“No,” replied Mosby Colbert.“

“I’m told they’re investigating that you were padding your overtime and they suspended you,” Lewis said.

“They suspended me", Mosby Colbert replied, "but I wasn’t an embezzler, it wasn’t embezzlement.”

But a source familiar with the case tells Action News it is an embezzlement case and it’s been going on undetected since 2008.
The source described the alleged scheme to Lewis this way: Mosby Colbert would turn in her overtime sheet to the District Commander with an hour of overtime, maybe two, not enough to draw attention.

After the Commander approved it she would alter the time sheet, changing that hour of overtime to 10 hours or the 2 hours 12 hours, then send it to payroll and get an inflated paycheck.

A source says police finally got onto the alleged scheme when a new commander came in and did a financial audit of the district. He wondered how a timekeeper who worked an 8am to 4pm clerical job inside the station could rack up nearly 20 thousand dollars a year in overtime.

He called Internal Affairs in to investigate. Mosby Colbert is the second Detroit cop to be suspended under suspicion of embezzlement recently.

In June the investigators broke the story of Sergeant Malkia Miller. She is suspended with pay under criminal investigation for allegedly looting the Central District’s flower fund, used to pay for flowers for funerals of officers and their families.

When the Action News Investigators dug into the latest case we discovered that Kim Mosby Colbert has a history of financial problems.

Court records show Mosby Colbert has seven civil judgments filed against her in 36th District Court for unpaid bills totaling 24 thousand dollars. Her police wages were garnished twice. She declined to comment on the civil judgments.

Sources tell Channel 7 Internal Affairs investigators will soon have some questions of their own for Mosby Colbert before deciding if there’s enough evidence to seek a criminal warrant.