


Following an embezzlement scheme that landed a former Beaumont (TX) police officer in federal prison Thursday, the local police union will revise its bylaws to make internal fraud more difficult. "No more one-party checks. We've already taken care of that," Sgt. Mike Mills, president of the 250-member Beaumont Police Officers Association, said Thursday.
Earlier in the day, 54-year-old Paul Perritt was sentenced to four months in federal prison and four months of home confinement or house arrest. A plea agreement with federal prosecutors requires Perritt, whose 30-year career with the police department included about 13 years as union treasurer, to repay the union $141,942.
He also has lost his certification as a Texas peace officer and must also pay a $1,000 fine.
Convicted of a felony, Perritt can never again legally own firearms.
Perritt has already repaid $100,000 of the required restitution with funds from his department retirement fund, according to his attorney.
"He had sole control of the union funds, but we're going to change the union constitution and bylaws to make this type of fraud more difficult," Mills said. "For one thing, we want to institute some term limits."
Addressing U.S. District Court Judge Thad Heartfield at Perritt's sentencing hearing, Mills urged the judge not to grant Perritt a sentence reduction because he had been a police officer.
"When this began to come to light, we gave him months and months to help us discover these problems," Mills said. "He denied it over and over until he learned we had requested federal assistance in investigating."
Perritt retired from the department in May 2007 while under federal investigation.
"He not only broke the law while serving as a police officer but perpetrated the offense over a significant period of time," Heartfield said after pronouncing Perritt's sentence and denying a sentence reduction.
Perritt's attorney, Kent Adams, had asked that Perritt be given probation. He argued that Perritt's service as a police officer, his cooperation with federal investigators and his poor health should spare him from incarceration.
As treasurer, Perritt could write checks from union accounts containing funds deposited directly from member paychecks.
Court papers indicate at least some of the money Perritt embezzled was used to pay personal credit card debt.
He is not the first Southeast Texas peace officer to run afoul of the laws they have sworn to uphold.
* Vidor police officer Chad Everette Bourque was sentenced in November 2006 to five years' probation and a $1,000 fine after pleading guilty to felony child pornography charges.
* In July 2006, disgraced Jasper County Precinct 6 Constable Fred Peters resigned from his office while in the Hardin County jail where he was held on delivery of controlled substance charges.
Peters previously was arrested on charges of theft by check and public intoxication.
* Former Beaumont policeman Michael Siebe received a 40-year prison sentence in October 1994 for stealing $30 million worth of cocaine from the Beaumont Police Department and laundering money from drug sales.
* Convicted of charges including conspiracy to make and sell drugs, embezzlement of county funds and obstruction of justice, Orange County Sheriff James Wade was sentenced in 1988 to 20 years in federal prison.
Wade was released in 2005 after serving 17 years.
(southeasttexaslive.com)