DETROIT - 7 Action News has learned that a Detroit Police Sergeant has
been charged with three felonies for allegedly embezzling money from her
own department.

Investigator Scott Lewis first reported that Sergeant Malkia Miller was under investigation back in July.

What
makes this case especially troubling is that the money in question was
supposed to be used to help fellow officers and their families during
times of sorrow.

All of Detroit's precincts have a flower fund.
The money goes to buy flowers when an officer or close family member
dies. Police investigators suspect Sergeant Malkia Miller helped herself
to some of this money and Tuesday she was hauled into court to face the
music. She was arraigned in Detroit's 36th District Court on three
felony charges; two embezzlement counts and one count of using a
computer to commit a felony.

Until recently, Miller worked on the
administrative staff at Detroit's Central District where one of her
responsibilities was the flower fund. The money is raised through sales
from precinct vending machines and the Detroit Police Department manual
has strict guidelines on how it can be spent.

Investigators
suspect Miller spent some of the cash, around $14,000, on herself. A
source close to the investigation says Miller allegedly used some of the
money to make her car payment online and that's where the computer
charge comes in.

This case is part of a crackdown on alleged
police corruption that Chief Ralph Godbee unveiled to the 7 Action News
Investigators back in August.

"What we're creating is a culture
to where good officers don't want to work side-by-side with criminals.
That's the bottom line," Godbee said at the time. He also told 7 Action
News about plans to form a Detroit Police-FBI corruption task force, a
unit that is now up and running.

The 7 Action News Investigators
have learned that Detroit Police are also planning to seek a criminal
warrant charging a second officer with embezzlement.

A police
source tells 7 Action News that investigators believe they have enough
evidence to charge Kim Mosby-Colbert in connection with an alleged
paycheck padding scheme and they will soon ask the prosecutor for a
warrant.

Mosby-Colbert was the timekeeper at Detroit's Southwest
Police District, and she's suspected of doing some creative bookkeeping
on her own time sheet. Investigators believe she padded her overtime to
the tune of $70,000.

In the flower fund case, a magistrate entered a not guilty plea on Malkia Miller's behalf.

She was released on a personal bond, which means she didn't have to post any cash.

Chief
Ralph Godbee twice asked the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners to
suspend Sergeant Miller without pay while the case was under
investigation. Both times the board voted down his request and to this
day she is suspended, but still drawing a full pay check. Godbee is
expected to go back to the board again to ask for a suspension without
pay, now that Miller has been criminally charged.