A former Chamblee Police Department employee was indicted Thursday for altering traffic citations to get refunds for the offenders, then keeping the money herself.
Bobbi Jean Farrell, 34, is charged with racketeering, two counts of falsifying official documents and four counts of theft by taking for filching about $3,000 over a three-month period.
“I made a huge mistake,” Farrell told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution when she was reached by phone at her Chamblee home.
Police Chief Marc Johnson said Farrell, who had worked with the department for eight years before she was fired in July, was like family.
“That’s the part that hurt, this wasn’t just a theft,” Johnson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’ve got 63 employees. It’s very much like a family. This was like a long-term family member violating everybody’s trust.”
Between April and June of this year, Farrell is accused of changing citations to show that prosecutors dropped charges, and subsequently creating bogus city bond refund forms to return cash deposited for bail back to the offenders, according to the indictment.
She then intercepted checks cut for each of the offenders and deposited the money into her own bank account.
Farrell started working for the police department part-time and was eventually hired as a dispatcher.
“She did a phenomenal job and was promoted to a supervisor on the detention side,” Johnson said.
And because of the close-knit nature of the 63-member Chamblee law enforcement staff, he said Farrell was trusted to work with judges, handling traffic court documents.
The theft started from a simple mistake that she took advantage of, Johnson said.
“The first check that she took, she actually didn’t alter anything,” he said. “The check was mailed and returned, so she took it and put it in her account.”
After that, Farrell devised her scheme, Johnson said.
In Chamblee, when an offender is arrested and puts up money to bond out, that money is refunded if there is an acquittal or dismissal.
“She would target Hispanic offenders,” the chief said.
When applying for a refund, offenders could opt to pick up the money or request a check be mailed.
Johnson said Farrell would put her address on the applications then sign her name to the checks before depositing them. He said she stole as many as seven checks, although the indictment only accounts for four.
But one of the offenders whose money she stole actually may have been entitled to the money.
“The defendant came to court … and said he thought he had documentation that would show he was not guilty,” Johnson said. “The clerk went into the [computer] system and told him that it already showed his case was dismissed, and that the city had mailed him a check.”
Weeks later, when the seemingly exonerated man returned to say he never got his money, court staff saw the check had been cashed and investigated what happened.
On July 13, Chamblee police arrested Farrell. She was released from the DeKalb County jail later that day on $15,000 bond. She was subsequently fired, Johnson said.
Via phone, the single mother of two said her two young girls could suffer from her indiscretion.
“I’ve ruined my daughters’ lives,” she said.
Johnson said he was disappointed.
“She was a go-to person,” he said. “She had the trust of everybody: the judges, police, her co-workers. For $3,000 to trash a career and the trust of your peers … What do some people think?”
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