The Central Detectives supervisor fudged paperwork to rack up nearly $17,000 in court compensation that he wasn't entitled to between 2006 and 2009, according to Internal Affairs investigators.
Yet, while current top-cop Charles Ramsey has waged a high-profile crusade to crack down on corruption in the department, Brown was allowed to quietly retire last year, dodging scrutiny that could have resulted in criminal charges and ensuring that he'll get a $43,229 pension.
"That's theft," said Brian Puricelli, the attorney representing two whistle-blower cops who complain that they were retaliated against when they cooperated with detectives who were investigating Brown.
In a cash-strapped city that's faced years of trimmed budgets, some police watchdogs question why investigators failed to send Brown's case to the District Attorney's Office for review for possible criminal charges, as Ramsey said should be routine when serious wrongdoing is uncovered.
"There's a very good question that I hear as to why they didn't refer this to the D.A.'s office," said Ronda Goldfein, an attorney and member of the Police Advisory Commission, the civilian oversight agency. Commission members had not heard of the allegations against Brown.
"When anybody paid by city money does something wrong, all the citizens and taxpayers of the city should be complaining about it," Goldfein added.
Especially since police overtime has been a sore point for years. City Controller Alan Butkovitz in 2007 highlighted this issue as a concern, saying that some cops essentially were padding their own paychecks. Ramsey created an overtime-management unit two years ago that has successfully reduced overtime costs.
