Records of the sheriff's child protection unit are examined after two are accused of making bogus claims and getting paid.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published August 31, 2004
LARGO - Pinellas County sheriff's officials are reviewing overtime in the agency's child protection investigation division after two investigators were charged with submitting false overtime slips.
The review has resulted in supervisors "tightening things up" on how overtime is handled, said Capt. George Steffen, the division's commander.
The inquiry comes after the arrests this month of investigators Karen L. Caputi and Regina Booze-Bostick, both who face charges of felony grand theft.
Supervisors noticed that between January and April, Caputi had submitted about 30 overtime slips with no paperwork to back it up. Supervisors also found no corresponding investigations that would require Caputi, 28, to work the overtime, according to arrest reports.
On Aug. 19, a sheriff's detective interviewed Caputi, who admitted she turned in more than $1,600 in faked overtime. She told the detective that her husband had recently divorced her and left her with $25,000 in credit card debt, reports said.
She resigned from the agency that day, ending a two-year career.
A week later, a warrant was issued for Caputi's arrest. She was arrested Friday, then released from the Pinellas County Jail on her own recognizance.
Sheriff's officials also learned that Booze-Bostick, 40, submitted more than $1,000 in overtime slips that could not be documented, arrest reports said. She was arrested Aug. 4 and released from jail on her own recognizance. She has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Booze-Bostick, a five-year agency veteran, was placed on administrative leave upon her arrest, then resigned about two weeks ago, said sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha.
During the investigations, Caputi told a detective that "she had heard other members of the . . . unit talking about working overtime and knew that they were falsifying their overtime requests, so she decided to do the same," an arrest report said.
Steffen said of that comment: "A lot of people say a lot of different things when they're in trouble."
Steffen said the review of overtime slips has found no other overtime abuses so far, though he said the inquiry is still in progress.
"I don't think it's prevalent," he said. "We don't believe it's an issue with the whole division."
For that reason, Steffen said commanders aren't inspecting every overtime slip turned in by every employee over the last eight months. But he said spikes in overtime will be reviewed.
"It's not like we're investigating everyone," he said. "We're not doing an audit."
Still, Steffen said supervisors are watching incoming overtime more closely these days.
"We're putting some mechanisms in place to track overtime a little bit better than we have," Steffen said.
Steffen said he believes his unit, which has 137 employees and is responsible for child welfare investigations, is filled mostly with honest people.
"The majority of our folks are good, hard-working people and they're dedicated to a tough job," he said.
Other divisions in the Sheriff's Office also have had employees fake overtime during the past two years.
In May 2003, a corrections lieutenant at the county jail was arrested on suspicion he faked $8,400 in overtime and sick pay for himself and a co-worker. Both resigned. The lieutenant pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 18 months' probation.
In November 2002, a patrol sergeant was arrested on charges of submitting nearly 200 false overtime slips totaling more than $16,000. He resigned and later was ordered into a pretrial intervention program, which he completed.
