NYPD dumbshoe
Ex-detective boss busted for stealing $29G pay
A former detective squad commander found himself in handcuffs Tuesday morning for getting paid for hundreds of hours he wasn’t working, police and sources said.
Scott Kienle, 42, of Staten Island, was called in to Police Headquarters and charged with petty larceny based on an indictment filed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. He was hustled off to Manhattan Central Booking, where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a conditional discharge. He had already officially retired on Aug. 10, cops said.
Lt. John Dandola of the chief of detectives investigations unit compared Kienle’s time cards with his movements in his NYPD car and found he had stolen 412 hours and 29 minutes of straight time and 101 hours and 35 minutes of overtime over 165 days in 2017, court records show. The value of that unearned time is roughly $29,000.
“The defendant arrived at work several hours after he was listed as present for duty or left work prior to when he indicated that he finished his tour,” Dandola found, according to the criminal complaint. “The defendant was paid for work that he was not present for.”
Kienle made full restitution to the NYPD, including about $9,000 in cash and forfeited vacation days, a spokesman for the DA’s office said.
Kienle was the well-regarded commander of the Brooklyn South major case squad before he was yanked out of the unit, stripped of his guns and shield and dumped into the Manhattan Viper unit to monitor security cameras in March.
Kienle made $188,992, including overtime, in 2017, records show. He joined the NYPD in 2000 and was promoted to sergeant in 2006.