March 19, 10

NEWS / Suspended State Employee Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Time Sheets to Collect Over $4,000 in Overtime

TRENTON – Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that a suspended technical assistant for the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission Inspections Unit pleaded guilty today to submitting false time sheets in order to collect more than $4,000 in overtime pay for hours she did not work.

According to Director Taylor, Alicia Windfuhr, 26, of Hamilton, pleaded guilty to an accusation charging her with third-degree theft by deception before Superior Court Judge Gerald J. Council in Mercer County.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Windfuhr be sentenced to a term of probation conditioned on her serving 180 days in the Mercer County Jail. She must pay restitution to the Motor Vehicle Commission of $4,144. In addition, she must forfeit her state job and will be permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey.

In pleading guilty, Windfuhr admitted that between June 2008 and January 2009, she submitted numerous fraudulent time sheets indicating that she worked many hours of overtime that she did not actually work. She obtained payment for that time of $4,144 to which she was not entitled.

Judge Council scheduled sentencing for May 27.

Deputy Attorneys General Christine Hoffman and David M. Fritch prosecuted the case and took the guilty plea for the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. The case was investigated by the New Jersey State Police and the Motor Vehicle Commission. The investigation was led by Detective Sgt. Myles Cappiello and Detective Glenn Sefick of the State Police, and Investigator Stephen Crane of the Motor Vehicle Commission.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases10/pr20100318b.html