Detroit police sergeant suspended as FBI probes alleged money-making scheme

Honestly, keeping up on the alleged misdeeds of Detroit police officers is starting to get a little challenging.

A Detroit police sergeant has been suspended without pay amid an FBI probe into an alleged illegal money-making scheme, the Detroit Police Department has confirmed. The Detroit News first reported the suspension Wednesday night, after it obtained a pair of memos that said the sergeant is being examined for selling information from traffic crash reports to a third party company that then allegedly used the information to commit fraud.

The case comes to light a day after two officers were sentenced to prison for taking bribes in a separate scheme that involved referrals of stolen and abandoned vehicles to chop shops. They're among six officers who've been convicted of or charged with extortion for the same thing.

The sergeant's suspension surfaced two days after details emerged on the latest alleged violent crime incident involving an officer with the department. Officer Willie Fortner was charged on Monday with assaulting his girlfriend in Greektown and then pulling a gun on two bystanders who tried to intervene.

The sergeant at the center of the latest controversy to befall the department allegedly used the information in crash reports to contact accident victims and convince them to obtain unnecessary legal and medical services and file lawsuits, the Detroit News reports.

According to the News, the sergeant was initially suspended with pay last week. Police spokeswoman Nicole Kirkwood said Thursday afternoon that the sergeant's pay had since been withheld.

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