Crofton police officer sentenced to probation

Investigation found he falsified timesheets and overtime slips

An Anne Arundel County judge sentenced a former Crofton police officer to a year of supervised probation and ordered him to pay $3,830 in restitution after a county police investigation found he falsified timesheets and overtime slips in 2020.

Berney Williams Jr., 34, of Bowie, entered an Alford plea, which allows a defendant to maintain innocence while acknowledging there is enough evidence to convict, to one count of misdemeanor theft, the Office of the State’s Attorney of Anne Arundel County announced Monday. Judge Glenn Klavans placed Williams on probation before judgment Dec. 10 after a four-day trial in September ended in a hung jury.

As part of the plea agreement, Williams was ordered to pay $3,830 in restitution to the Crofton Civic Association and resign from the police department.

“At no time did a jury find him guilty and at no time did he admit guilt,” said William Porter, Williams’ defense attorney. “We entered into the Alford plea so he could move on with his life.”

Williams was suspended from the Crofton Police Department on Nov. 3, 2020, after the department discovered discrepancies between the hours Williams claimed to work and when he actually worked, including hours of regular pay and overtime pay, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

The Crofton Police Department searched Williams’ hours by checking Computer-Aided Dispatch records, used by 911 operators to direct responders to incident calls, to track the dates and times he spoke into the radio to clock in and out of his shifts.

The department discovered there were days and hours Williams said he worked but he was not recorded in CAD notes, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

Crofton Police Chief Earl Fox asked Anne Arundel County police on Nov. 3, 2020, to investigate Williams for submitting false attendance sheets from January to November 2020. Crofton police also viewed video surveillance from Crofton Town Hall where officers report to start their shifts. On the days there were no CAD records of Williams working, he was also not seen on video starting his shift at town hall, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

Williams turned in overtime slips with his signature for some of the hours he did not work, according to Crofton police.

Porter said Wednesday that a jury heard testimony in September that Crofton police did not maintain their own CAD records and instead used Anne Arundel County police’s CAD system.

Other officers in the Crofton police department had timecards that also did not match up with CAD records, Porter said, and the department did not have roll call at the beginning of shifts.

Williams, who said he is the first Black officer in the five-person police agency, filed a job discrimination complaint on Nov. 11, 2021, with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming the department retaliated against him for reporting another officer for stealing time.

The Crofton Civic Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said in a statement announcing Williams’ probation before the judgment that his supervised probation holds him accountable for his actions.

“The defendant, as a law enforcement officer, used his trusted position to steal from the same community he took an oath to protect and serve,” Leitess said in a statement.