Nashville court staffer charged with stealing more than $100,000 from traffic school
Nashville TN Aug 2 2018 An employee at Nashville’s General Sessions Court was indicted Friday on charges that he stole more than $100,000 from the city’s traffic school program over the course of “several years.”
General Sessions Judge Melissa Blackburn confirmed the news in an email to staff Friday afternoon. The employee, John Michael Bowers, was fired Thursday.
Metro police said Bowers was arrested overnight Saturday on an official misconduct charge. Police said Bowers, 62, had pocketed money paid by those who had attended traffic school. Part of his job was to collect fees from attendees, and police said Bowers’ theft “frequently involved defendants with limited English and little knowledge of the court system.”
Blackburn thanked other General Sessions staff members for reporting and investigating “the extent of the wrongdoing involved.”
“Particularly disturbing is the fact that the employee involved allegedly singled out many people who were less likely to understand they were being victimized by his actions over several years,” Blackburn wrote in her email.
Metro police investigators had executed search warrants on Bowers, his vehicle and his home Thursday as part of a two-week embezzlement investigation that was conducted jointly with the FBI.
“I want to thank the dedicated and diligent individuals who discovered there was a problem and immediately brought it to our attention,” Blackburn wrote. “Thank you as well to the individuals who, over many hours, researched records to discover the extent of the wrongdoing involved.”
Blackburn also thanked law enforcement for “guidance in resolving this issue.”
“Betrayal of the public trust is never acceptable and must never be tolerated,” Blackburn wrote. “Whether it is an elected official or an employee, it falls to each of us to conduct ourselves by observing the highest standards of ethical behavior.”
Tennessean
