Ex-Officer Held in Theft of Police Group’s Funds

A former Monrovia police lieutenant was arrested Monday on felony charges that he embezzled about $125,000 from the local police officers association to pay off gambling debts.

James Eugene Ferris, 48, was charged with grand theft from Monrovia Police Officers Assn. funds between December 1994 and December 1998, while he served as treasurer. He also faces three counts of filing false tax returns and three counts of evading state taxes in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

Ferris, was arrested in Novato, north of San Francisco, where he had been working at a Cheaper Cigarettes store, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rob Dver.

Ferris, formerly of La Verne, was being taken back to the Los Angeles area Monday.

An 18-year veteran of the force, Ferris is expected to remain in custody on $125,000 bail pending arraignment today in Los Angeles Municipal Court, said Dver. If convicted, he faces more than six years in prison.

In Monrovia--a San Gabriel Valley suburb of 39,000 famous for its zero tolerance for crime--everyone from the chief of police to officers on the beat expressed their horror over formal charges that one of their own had cleaned them out.

“This has wounded every member of this Police Department,” Monrovia Police Chief Joseph A. Santoro said. “He’s violated everything we believe in and stand for in Monrovia. We won’t have our integrity compromised.”

Santoro said Ferris is the first officer charged with stealing from the force in its more than 100-year history.

Det. Donald Newton, president of the Monrovia Police Officers Assn., said Ferris, a married man with a master’s degree, embezzled money that was intended to provide fellow officers with legal protection. The money also goes to dozens of local charities.

“We support softball teams, education programs, indigent families,” Newton said. “We had an annual Christmas Party until we didn’t have enough money--and now we know why.

“This hurts everyone of our officers,” he said. “A lot of us looked up to Jim. But this cannot be condoned.”

In all, Ferris served as the association’s treasurer from 1986 to 1998, during which he tightly controlled the financial books, Newton said.

Monrovia police investigators became suspicious of Ferris’ bookkeeping last year while looking into an unrelated internal matter, he said. Ferris was placed on administrative leave in late 1998 and resigned Feb. 2.

Eight days later, the Monrovia police turned the investigation over to the district attorney’s office. The office’s special investigations unit examined bank accounts and discovered that Ferris apparently had been slowly bleeding the organization to pay off gambling debts, a district attorney spokeswoman said.

Monrovia police officers say they saw no indication of Ferris’ alleged malfeasance. Like many officers, Santoro said he had been at social events with Ferris and even been to his home.

Santoro said: “It’s distressing, not only to the Monrovia department but all police agencies, when these types of crimes occur.”

Ferris’ crime, however, isn’t unique. Three years ago, former Alhambra police officer and school board president Stephen Perry pleaded guilty to stealing $31,000 from that suburb’s police officers association.