An Indianapolis police officer has been fired after an investigation showed he lied to police about his home being broken into, then sold department-owned equipment.
Greenwood resident Juan Baez III, 30, lost his job as a probationary officer with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department due to actions uncovered in an investigation by Greenwood police and the Indianapolis police special investigations unit.
Baez has been charged with a felony count of counterfeiting and two misdemeanors — theft and false informing, according to the charging documents from the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.
“With the filing of these charges, we hope to demonstrate again that a public safety officer is not above the law and will be held accountable for criminal conduct. Indeed, such alleged conduct is not only a crime, but it is an abuse of the trust which we all place in our police officers,” Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said in a news release.
Baez had been an Indianapolis police officer for one year, which means he was still a probationary officer, and worked on the southeast side of the city, according to a news release from Indianapolis police.
He was fired on Monday by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Bryan Roach. Baez had been placed on leave on Sept. 6, while the investigation was underway.
“IMPD officers are held to the highest standards, not only by the department but by the Indianapolis community,” Indianapolis police said in a news release. “The actions of one does not reflect the outstanding work and sacrifice that over 1,600 men and women of the IMPD do each and every day in serving their community.”
Earlier this month, Baez reported to Greenwood police that his apartment near U.S. 31 and Fry Road had been broken into, and a wallet, gaming system and controllers, wedding rings and a necklace had been taken, among other items.
Greenwood police began investigating by entering the items into a nationwide database of stolen possessions and another nationwide database that tracks items that have been sold or pawned at pawn shops. A sergeant immediately discovered that the gaming system had been sold to a pawn shop, and that Baez’s driver’s license had been used to provide identification of the person who was selling the item, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Police searched further into the pawn database and found that Baez had sold or pawned 14 items to shops on the southside or in Greenwood. All the items he had reported stolen in the burglary, except for the wallet and a watch, had been sold to area shops in August, the affidavit said. Police also found records that two items that were not reported stolen had been pawned by Baez — a ballistic helmet and vest.
When Baez was questioned again about the burglary, he repeated the items that were stolen, and told police that he had found the gaming system near a trashcan in his apartment complex. He went into detail about the jewelry that had been stolen, especially a pendant necklace. Police already had records that showed that Baez had sold the specific necklace to a pawn shop, the affidavit said.
He told police he found his wife’s jewelry box inside a trash receptacle in his neighborhood, but it was empty.
Police went to a pawn shop to examine the items listed as sold or pawned by Baez, and investigators saw that the helmet and vest were Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department equipment, the affidavit said.
When Indianapolis police department internal investigators confronted Baez, he told them he had sold the police department equipment for $175 and pawned the other items because he needed money, and he made up the burglary report to keep his wife from knowing what he had done, the affidavit said.
The counterfeiting charge stems from the evidence that Baez signed a sales agreement with the pawn show stating that he had a right to sell the helmet and vest, Curry said.
