Lawyer denounces scrutiny of former Milford cop accused of embezzlement
MILFORD — A lawyer retained by a former police sergeant accused of embezzling $184,000 while serving as Police Benevolent Association president asked the public to withhold judgment ahead of his client’s first appearance in the case next month.
The former Milford police officer, 42-year-old Peter Parks, is scheduled to appear at state Superior Court Jan. 18 on a charge of first-degree larceny related to the theft, to which police Parks confessed to PBA board members in April, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
“Mr. Parks is entitled to the same presumptions to which we are all entitled including the presumption of innocence,” his attorney, Daniel A. Esposito, said in a prepared statement Friday noting defendants’ constitutional rights.
Parks, who was released after posting $50,000 bond following his arrest, “may remain silent, is entitled to counsel, and must be afforded due process prior to any governmental deprivation,” Esposito said. “Within the shelter of these protections, we will vet the state’s claims.”
Parks resigned as a police officer in June prior to a police commission meeting where he faced dismissal.
According to police, Parks covered the fraud by denying other members access to accounts.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the thefts included about $10,878 in unauthorized checks payable to him or “cash,” not including a $2,400 donation he was entitled to receive as a PBA member when he was out on sick leave in October 2020.
The PBA funds are intended for the families of officers killed or wounded in the line of duty, to defray officers’ expenses when they lose income while on sick leave for more than 60 days, or for other more general community benefit.
According to the affidavit, Parks told PBA executive board members in April that he had a tough year and had started using the Capital One credit card for groceries and then the spending continued to escalate.
The police investigation began when police lieutenant and PBA Vice President Robert Weymer reported suspicious activity to investigators on May 1. He told investigators that PBA Second Vice President Tony Vitti, a retired police sergeant, notified him that a bank worker had told him a PBA checking account was overdrawn and that there should be a second set of eyes, other than Parks to review the account, the affidavit states.
According to the documents, Vitti reviewed the PBA’s finances and noted several suspicious payments to a Capital One credit card. Opened in 2016, the card was only supposed to be used for PBA activities, according to the affidavit. Weymer said about $10,000 in that account’s funds had paid for the purchases in one week. The affidavit states Weymer told police the PBA does not spend $10,000 a week and the PBA executive board would know if it had spent the money.
Weymer and other PBA members reviewed the unaccounted card activity back to July 2022 and learned that the mailing and email address on the account was listed as Parks’ personal email and home address, which would prevent any mail or paperwork from going to the Milford Police Department, the affidavit states.
Police said Parks told the current PBA treasurer, Sgt. Kathleen Bruno, to open an account at Chase Bank in October 2022, and that money had been transferred from there to a Milford Bank checking account. Parks had also denied Bruno the same access to bank accounts that her predecessor as treasurer had, the affidavit states.