A Houston Police officer is charged with stealing cash from drivers he pulled over in the Third Ward area just southeast of downtown.
Matthias Dornellian, 24, appeared in court today to face a felony count of Theft by a Public Servant.
Fellow HPD officers say Dornellian is a former New York Police Department officer, but the reason he left NYPD is unclear. He joined HPD last year and his colleagues say motorists kept on complaining that he would pull them over and steal cash from them.
Officers say some were known drug suspects, people who have had all kinds of dealings with police and are less likely to file a complaint if an officer violates their rights.
But the number of complaints that were lodged against Dornellian was unusual, according to officers who worked with him.
Undercover officers with the HPD Internal Affairs Division's Proactive Unit staged a sting over the weekend to see if they could catch Dornellian in the act.
An undercover officer drove by his patrol car in the Third Ward on Friday night, driving in a manner that's guaranteed to get you pulled over if a police car is nearby.
Sure enough, investigators say Dornellian flipped on his flashing lights and pulled the motorist over. The driver had $273 in a wallet in his back pocket, according to court records.
When the traffic stop was finished, that $273 was gone from the undercover officer's wallet.
The HPD SWAT team then moved into action, which is standard protocol for the arrest of one of their own.
He was arrested while still on duty in his patrol car, and Internal Affairs officers say half of the stolen money was found attached to Officer Dornellian's clipboard. They also found $100 stuffed into the officer's sock.
The undercover officer was carrying marked bills, and investigators say the money found in Dornellian's sock consisted of those marked bills. The money attached to his clipboard was also the marked bills.
His attorneys at the Houston Police Officer's Union did not return a call seeking comment.
Dornellian posted a $5,000 bail to be released from jail. He is relieved of duty with pay, pending termination proceedings.
If he's found guilty of Theft by a Public Servant, he could spend up to 10-years in prison.
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