Former Miami Officer Admits Stealing From Colleagues
April 25--Vernell Reynolds, a fired Miami police officer who once headed an association of black cops, plans to plead guilty in federal court Wednesday to stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the group's credit union accounts.
Reynolds had served as president of the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association from 2005 to 2010, when senior members discovered her "unauthorized" debit-card withdrawals from the group's accounts, according to federal court records.
Reynolds had a serious gambling problem, stretching from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood to another Indian gaming venue in California, a joint FBI-Miami police corruption probe found.
Reynolds, 46, who is working as a security guard and living in Hollywood, is expected to plead guilty to fraud and tax charges in Miami federal court in a plea deal that could send her to prison for a few years.
Reynolds' lawyers, Peter Raben and Jeffrey Neiman, negotiated the deal so a previous 16-count fraud indictment would be dropped and their client could plead guilty to one fraud count and one tax violation.
The fraud charge is for one withdrawal of $215 on the association's credit union account number at the Seminole's casino in 2009. The tax offense is for filing a false return that showed her income was $41,036 in 2009, when "her total income was substantially greater than the stated amount," according to new charges filed in late March.
She made about $65,000 as a police officer that year, records show.
Prosecutors say Reynolds embezzled more than $210,000 in fellow officers' membership dues between 2008 and 2010, "taking money from the [association's] credit union accounts and using it for her own purposes," according to the charges.
In the original indictment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Dwyer alleged she used an association-issued debit card to access its credit union accounts to make unauthorized cash withdrawals, personal purchases and money transfers to her personal credit union account. Thirteen of the withdrawals were made at the Seminole's casino in Broward, and one was made at another Indian casino in California, records show.
Her attorney, Raben, said in a statement that his client devoted much of her life to fighting crime and helping her inner-city community. But the evidence suggests that Reynolds ultimately betrayed the people who had trusted her most: fellow black police officers.
Reynolds joined the Miami Police Department in 1993 and held various assignments, including as a neighborhood resource officer in Liberty City. Before Miami, she had worked as a cop in Opa-locka and North Miami.
"Even good and strong people battle demons and sometimes fail," Raben said. "Vernell is remorseful and embarrassed by what has happened, and hopes that someday those who relied upon her and are disappointed in her will come to understand and forgive."
The group Reynolds once headed, the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association, was founded in 1946. It was formed by Ralph White, one of the first five black police officers who became sworn Miami cops in 1944, as an advocacy group for civil rights and related issues, according to the group's website.
The association has filed a lawsuit against Reynolds in Miami-Dade Circuit Court in a bid to recover the $210,000 in stolen funds.
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