City DPW worker charged with felony embezzlement
A Warren man is accused of embezzling a city store credit worth over $4,000 while he was working with the city’s department of public works.
Tyronne Lewis, 41, was due in Ferndale 43rd District Court on Monday for a hearing in the case that ended up being delayed.
Ferndale police said they got a complaint from an unidentified city official about the embezzlement allegation Oct. 19.
“Integrity and the foundation of public trust is of the utmost importance to us,” said City Manager Joseph Gagioch. “We were troubled and saddened to learn this alleged crime happened in the department. But when we were made aware of it, the matter was investigated and followed through” to the court.
A six-year employee of the DPW, Lewis resigned last month.
Officer Jill Mahlmeister said Lewis was supposed to return a portion of about $9,000 in roofing supplies that the DPW had not used after purchasing them several months earlier.
Lewis went to the Menards store to return the unused portion of the materials during the course of his workday Sept. 23, she added.
“Since the material was over 90 days (since purchase) Menards issued a store credit rather than a refund,” Mahlmeister said.
But police said no credit ever showed up in the city’s account.
“Our investigators retrieved surveillance footage that verified Lewis had loaded the items up in a city vehicle Sept. 23,” Mahlmeister said, “and footage of him returning the items to the store, as well as the paperwork he got for the store credit.”
The store credit paperwork ended up in the hands of another man, who used it toward the cost of a kit to build a garage, at Menards on Oct. 8.
“We never verified the amount of money Lewis sold the store credit for,” Mahlmeister said.
Ferndale police investigators work turned up surveillance video that showed Lewis at a Menards store in Livonia with the man who ended up using the city’s store credit Oct. 8, police said. The man who used the store credit denied knowing that the credit belonged to the Ferndale city account. He faces no criminal charges in the case.
Police said when they interviewed Lewis he told them he turned in the store credit paperwork to a city office.
“But no one with the city was able to verify that he turned in any paperwork,” Mahlmeister said.
The embezzlement charge against Lewis is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
He was arraigned Nov. 30 and is currently free on personal bond.
Lewis is to appear for his next virtual hearing in Ferndale court at 2 p.m. Dec. 21.