An Oklahoma City police detective has been charged with three counts of embezzlement, including two felony charges, after allegedly keeping three stolen laptops recovered in the course of his duties.
The allegations against Master Sergeant Steven Scott Vassar, 47, came to light during divorce proceedings with his wife.
According to reports, Vassar contacted his estranged wife in November 2015, asking her to return three laptops to him, saying they were property of the Oklahoma City Police Department. Instead of returning the laptops to Vassar, his wife became suspicious of the origin of the computers and contacted Vassar's supervisor to surrender them to the police.
According to Oklahoma City Police Captain Paco Balderrama, "When we went to recover them, we put two and two together and discovered these were not police issued laptops."
Vassar allegedly recovered each of the laptops in separate stolen laptop cases between 2008 and 2010. However, instead of entering them into evidence, he allegedly closed the cases without reporting the laptops as recovered or booking them into the OKCPD property room. Instead, reports say, he kept them for personal use.
Embezzlement is a white collar crime in which a person keeps money or property to which he or she is entrusted or misappropriates that property for a purpose other than its intended use. Embezzlement is punished as either a misdemeanor or felony depending on the value of the property:
- If the value of the property embezzled is less than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), any person convicted shall be punished by a fine not exceeding One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term not more than one (1) year, or by both such fine and imprisonment;
- If the value of the property embezzled is Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), or more but less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), any person convicted shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one (1) year or by imprisonment in the county jail for one or more nights or weekends pursuant to Section 991a-2 of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes, at the discretion of the court, and shall be subject to a fine not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), and ordered to pay restitution to the victim as provided in Section 991f of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes;
- If the value of the property embezzled is One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) or more but less than Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00), any person convicted shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for a term of not more than five (5) years, and a fine of not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), and ordered to pay restitution to the victim as provided in Section 991f of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes; or
- If the value of the property embezzled is Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) or more, any person convicted shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for a term of not more than ten (10) years, and a fine not exceeding Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00), and ordered to pay restitution to the victim as provided in Section 991f of Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes. (21 O.S. § 1451)
Vassar is charged with one misdemeanor count of embezzlement and two felony counts of embezzlement in the case.
Image credit: Luca Conti
