Want access to unlimited case records and advanced research tools? Create your free CasePortal account now. No credit card required to register.
Try CasePortal for FreeJ. Niemeyer finds the lower court properly convicted a sheriff and two deputies of federal program theft. Exercising his broad power as sheriff of a small county, the sheriff enriched himself by directing his deputies to work on the public payroll to improve his personal property, including converting and expanding a modest barn into a home entertainment center. He also enriched himself and others by devising a system to skim money from the extra compensation payable to his deputies for their work manning drunk-driver automobile checkpoints in the county. The officers argue they did not commit federal program theft because they were not agents of the county, as charged, and the county had not received more than $10,000 in federal benefits in the preceding year. The state may employ the sheriff, but he did have authorization to spend the county's money, making him an agent. Affirmed.