By Linda Trischitta
Sun Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — After eight probationers were accused of not making their restitution payments to the state, an investigation found their former probation officer had deposited their funds into his checking account, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said.
Ricky Bell, 62, was charged with eight counts of a public servant falsifying official documents; one count of obtaining property under $20,000 by fraud and 24 counts of fraud, uttering a forged instrument.
Bell once worked in a probation office in Hollywood, according to the sheriff’s office.
He had a 37 year career as a probation officer and resigned in April, 2014 while under investigation, said McKinley Lewis, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Corrections.
The investigation into Bell began when probation officers who’d taken over his duties were presented with receipts or copies of money orders by the offenders who were wrongly accused of owing money to the state, said Broward Sheriff’s Detective John Calabro, a public corruption investigator.
“The new probation officers who’d taken over his duties reported it to the Office of the Inspector General,” Calabro said.
Calabro worked with OIG Inspector Ryan Nicholas and Assistant State Attorney Ryan Kelley on the case.
Probation officers collect probationers’ checks and send them to JPay, the Florida Department of Correction’s vendor that handles their obligations for fines and court-ordered costs, Calabro said.
“Instead of putting them there, he was putting it into his own bank account,” the detective said.
Court documents list $3,308.72 in probationers’ payments and say that the funds were deposited into Bell’s Wells Fargo checking account from Nov. 28, 2012 through April 10, 2014.
“This was outrageous conduct on behalf of a probation officer,” Calabro said. “What a bad example to the probationers that are coming before him.”
Bell, who had not yet hired an attorney on Thursday, lives in Central Florida and was arrested in Polk County. He does not have a criminal record, Kelley told Broward County Judge John “Jay” Hurley during his initial court appearance.
Hurley set a $15,000 bond and ordered Bell to not contact the former offenders he once supervised.