FDNY Probers Called Cheats On Own Time

By ARI PAUL

Two Fire Department employees were charged March 6 with repeatedly submitting time-sheets reflecting a full day of work when they had left early, the Department of Investigation announced.

ROSE GILL HEARN: Corruption has consequences.

DOI stated that Confidential Investigators Eugene Cooper and Claude Joly, who worked in the FDNY's Testing Unit, were charged with filing the falsified time records between October 2007 and last month.

Could Do Jail Time

The two men were charged with Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the Second Degree, Falsifying Business Records in the Second Degree and Petit Larceny, all of which are Class A misdemeanors. They face up to a year in prison if convicted.

The two are accused of collecting nearly $1,000 each in pay for hours they did not work. A DOI Investigator had observed them leaving before their shifts ended.

"A city employee who purposefully misstates his work hours in an attempt to garner extra cash at the taxpayer's expense should know that there are consequences to that corrupt act," DOI Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said in a statement.