Connecticut police officer fired for payroll fraud

Lieutenant Benjamin Quinones was recently fired from his job as a member of the Connecticut Valley Hospital police force after evidence of payroll fraud was uncovered, according to the Hartford Courant.

An internal investigation was conducted after Quinones was placed on leave from his job at the Middletown, Connecticut hospital in January. The investigation revealed that he had been submitting falsified time sheets and accepting compensation for overtime hours he did not work. The Courant reported that during 2010, Quinones earned $175,496 - far more than any of the other 57 officers who work for the hospital's police force.

"A preliminary estimate shows that he may have been overpaid approximately $30,000, which is about 500 hours," Jim Siemianowski, public information officer for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, told the Middletown Press.

Payroll processing procedures are being evaluated in the wake of the incident, said Siemianowski. Quinones will also have to give back the money he was overpaid.

According to the Courant, Quinones was awarded $25,000 as a result of a suit against the town in 2004. Quinones, who is Latino, alleged that a colleague discriminated against him because of his ethnicity. 

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