Detroit Police Chief Indicted in $2.6-Million Embezzlement

The city’s police chief and a former deputy chief who was a business partner of Mayor Coleman Young were indicted Monday in a federal probe of the theft of nearly $2.6 million from a secret police fund.

A grand jury indicted Police Chief William Hart on seven counts and the former deputy chief, Kenneth Weiner, on five counts, U.S. Atty. Stephen Markman said.

For 18 months, the grand jury has been investigating the alleged disappearance of money from a secret Police Department fund set up to pay informers, buy drugs and conduct undercover investigations. Markman criticized the city for what he said was its “tepid at best” assistance in the investigation.

“I am innocent of these charges and, of course, my immediate and greatest concern is the effect this indictment will have on my wife and children as well as the men and women of the Detroit Police Department,” Hart said in a statement.

In the past, Hart has denied misusing the fund and has accused Weiner of embezzling from it.

City Council President Maryann Mahaffey called for the 67-year-old Hart’s resignation.

Markman said 54 checks totaling $1.29 million were drawn from the secret fund from 1986 through 1988 and deposited in businesses controlled by Weiner. Hart was charged with stealing an additional $1.29 million from the fund by cashing 98 checks from 1982 through 1989.

Weiner reportedly channeled some of the police money to a dummy corporation in California. Documents show that the company paid $72,000 in rent on a Beverly Hills home occupied by Hart’s daughter and son-in-law.