Former SRU police chief charged with $24K theft

Slippery Rock University’s former police chief was charged Monday with stealing nearly $24,000 from the university by creating fake invoices for equipment, according to a criminal complaint.

Michael J. Simmons, 48, of Jackson Center, Mercer County, was charged with four felony counts of theft, theft by deception, access device fraud and receiving stolen property.

Mr. Simmons could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

The university asked Pennsylvania State Police to investigate after discovering “several irregularities in budget funds within the police department,” the school said in a news release.

Police said Mr. Simmons submitted 35 fraudulent PayPal receipts totaling $23,477.33. Payments were sent to Mr. Simmons’ Slippery Rock bank account.

The investigation began in March shortly after several new officers were hired at the Slippery Rock University Police Department, the criminal complaint said.

During a required firearms qualification check of school police officers, it was found that Mr. Simmons had not qualified for the past four years, according to the complaint.

Mr. Simmons was placed on administrative leave Feb. 13 and terminated Feb. 26.

Lt. Kevin Sharkey was immediately named acting police chief. He soon discovered several discrepancies in equipment purchases while reviewing the department’s budget, police said.

The university ran a report of Mr. Simmons’ Mastercard transactions for one year and found a majority of the transactions were to a vendor named PayPal POLICESTUFF, according to the affidavit.

The acting chief discovered that the web address for that vendor did not exist; he couldn’t find any of the items that were listed as having been bought from PayPal POLICESTUFF.

When Mr. Simmons met with Slippery Rock representatives on Feb. 25, he confessed to making up the vendor.

Mr. Simmons told the school staff that “he was going through a divorce and was having financial problems,” the affidavit said.

According to state police Trooper Todd Adamski, Mr. Simmons said during a May 27 interview that he would create an invoice using the fake PayPal business account, email the invoice to himself and submit it to be paid.

Investigators also said that the acting chief checked the police department’s inventory and found equipment missing. Mr. Simmons returned some of it, the affidavit said, but not all of it. Among the missing property, according to police: a Harley Davidson jacket and a three-piece wood dining set.

SRU President William Behre said in a statement that while the school is “shocked,” Mr. Simmons’ actions did not threaten the campus community.

Mr. Simmons joined Slippery Rock in January 2011. A work history provided by the school said that Mr. Simmons had previously been director of safety and security at the Community College of Allegheny County; served as chief of the Titusville Police Department; and was a detective with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, where he worked in internal affairs.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. June 26 before Slippery Rock District Judge William S. O’Donnell.