BANCROFT, MI -- Former village of Bancroft Police Chief Randolph L.
Beebe was sentenced to probation Wednesday in U.S. District Court on
fraud charges.

Beebe was charged with filing a fraudulent claim
for federal grant and found guilty on April 13. The charge is a class A
misdemeanor.

He was sentenced Wednesday to two years probation
with the first six months served as in-home detention with electronic
monitoring.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Haviland said Beebe
can leave the house only to seek employment and only for very few other
reasons. Haviland said Beebe was also ordered to pay restitution in the
amount of $68,256 to the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP).

The
money received from the federal grant went straight to the village of
Bancroft and was used to pay Beebe's salary. Haviland said Beebe had
been getting paid by the village of Bancroft directly, but was afraid
the village would run out of money and he would be laid off.

Beebe
applied for the Department of Justice grant, and based on the
information on the application, the village received $68,256 that was
used to pay his salary.

Beebe's defense attorney Kenneth Sasse said the application did have false information on it, but it wasn't intentional.



"It clearly had some misinformation in it, which he has
always maintained was not intentional," Sasse said.According to
Sasse, the application at one point said there were two full-time police
officers employed in the village of Bancroft, when there was actually
only one. The application also said Beebe was scheduled to be laid off
on a specific date, but no date had been set.
"He (Beebe) said he had called Washington a number of times and one
of the things he asked about was if there was no specific date what should he
do, and he was told to just estimate the date the best he could," Sasse said.Haviland said the judge overseeing the case didn't see it that way.

"The judge at sentencing yesterday found that he had made
knowingly false statements on the application and that he deliberately lied," Haviland said.
Beebe worked for the village of Bancroft Police Department for 19 years.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2012/08/former_bancroft_police_chief_f.html