Seattle cop charged with theft for allegedly manipulating time card

A Seattle police officer was charged with first-degree theft after it was discovered he allegedly manipulated his time card.

RELATED: Seattle police investigated for off-duty jobs

The Seattle Police Department reports that an officer’s chain of command noticed “discrepancies” in the cop’s time records.

Michael Stankiewicz, 46, received $23,905 for 55 days he did not actually work, according to charging documents.

One day in August, Stankiewicz’s supervisor noticed he was not reporting to a call when he was listed as on duty. Further investigation revealed that he was also marked down to be on vacation at the same time. The supervisor then found similar issues with the officer’s time card. For example, he was reportedly marked to be paid by the city for jury duty in Snohomish County, but investigators found that Stankiewicz was excused from the jury.

Investigators checked Stankiewicz’s cellphone and Facebook posts and found he was in Seattle or elsewhere while he was supposed to be on duty. The Office of Police Accountability turned its investigation over to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, which recently filed the charge.

The officer was in initially placed on “administrative assignment to home” — meaning he was not on-duty while the OPA investigation was underway — but he is now on unpaid leave, pending the outcome of the case.

Stankiewicz was disciplined in 2015 after an investigation found he was pushing a suspect’s face into the ground while asking questions. Video of that incident can be seen here. Seattle Met previously reported that Stankiewicz was also in the news in 2014 for his online behavior.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Police Department has recently garnered criticism over  officers earning side cash for off-duty jobs. In September, OPA investigated how police were managing off-duty gigs, such as traffic control or security for private companies.

The investigation was prompted by complaints that businesses were pressured to hire the off-duty officers. One police officer reportedly bragged that a “mini-mafia” controlled all off-duty contracts. The FBI has started its own investigation.

Other cities, such as Portland, monitor and track such gigs. But Seattle didn’t until Mayor Tim Burgess signed an executive order in September regulating the use of third-party companies that hire out cops.

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