Former Detroit Lighting Worker Gets Probation For Stealing Bulbs, $4,200
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A former Detroit lighting worker who was charged after more than $4,200 in personal expenses was put on a city procurement card has been sentenced to probation.
Rudolph Washington, 38, learned his punishment on Thursday after earlier pleading guilty to charges including embezzlement, receiving or concealing stolen property, and illegal use of a financial transaction device.
Procurement cards are issued to Detroit municipal departments to make small purchases on behalf of the city. An investigation revealed unauthorized charges were made by Washington earlier this year.
The city said Washington, of Brownstown Township, didn't have permission to possess one of the cards. Investigators say he used the card between April and July at restaurants, and also to buy gas and stereo equipment.
"This is not a case when individual cards are given to employees," Detroit Inspector General James Heath told WWJ in September. "It's one card per department that Mr. Washington got his hands on and went to town with, I should say; and that was how he obtained these items fraudulently."
Prosecutors say Washington was also accused of stealing eight city-owned street lamps and 96 four-foot-long bulbs, a total value of about $4,300.
Washington had been facing nine felony charges. In exchange for his guily plea, several of those charges were dropped.
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