‘Criminal Minds’ actor pleads no contest to theft

An actor who had two brief appearances on CBS’ “Criminal Minds” has pleaded no contest to charges that he stole more than $60,000 from one of the show’s former headliners, actor Shemar Moore.

As part of a plea bargain reached Wednesday in San Fernando, actor Keith Tisdell, 42, agreed to repay Moore, 46, the sum of $61,084.

Prosecutors charged that Tisdell took the money after he befriended Moore in 2013, when they appeared in the same Season 8 episode. Tisdell was playing a character named Rodney Harrison, who had appeared on the show before in Season 2, according to his IMDB page.

“In bringing that story to life, we became friends. … We went into business together,” Moore told Judge Hayden Zacky ahead of Tisdell’s sentencing.

In his private life, Moore, who played FBI Special Agent Derek Morgan for 11 seasons, started a charity to help battle multiple sclerosis, a disease from which his mother suffered. The charity is called Baby Girl LLC, named after one of Moore’s signature phrases on the show, he told the court.

Tisdell was involved with the organization. Records show he was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement in January but ultimately admitted to grand theft.

The theft had gone undiscovered for some time, Moore told the judge.

During their friendship, Moore said, he bought Tisdell $10,000 in rims for his car, funded shared overseas vacations and gave him up to $20,000 to help with expenses. When an audit revealed cash from the organization was missing, Moore confronted Tisdell, who denied stealing the money, the actor said in court.

“In my mind, he wasn’t man enough to look me in the eye and fess up,” Moore told the judge.

“I’ve done a lot for him because he had me, my friends fooled,” Moore continued. “I’m not here for money. I’m here because he betrayed a friendship. This is not OK. You don’t do this to people.”

After the sentencing, Tisdell’s attorney gave Moore $5,000 worth of money orders; his client has to repay about $56,000 or he could end up in jail.

If Tisdell pays back the money and stays out of legal trouble for the next three years, the conviction may be expunged from his record, the judge said.