FLORIDA
A former trooper with the Florida Highway Patrol admitted to being involved in a scheme where police officers were accepting bribes by local wrecker operators to illegally get business from stranded drivers at accident scenes, officials said.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced former trooper Kirk Chambers to four years and two months in prison after he plead guilty to participating in a conspiracy to affect commerce through extortion under color of law, officials said.
On Aug. 4, U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia Altonaga also sentenced Chambers co-conspiratory, Guillermo “Tony” Sepulveda, to three years in prison for his participation in a bribery scheme.
Here are the facts surrounding this case, according to court documents:
Chambers was employed as a sworn Highway Patrol trooper between 2006 and 2015.
In 2013, the FBI and local law enforcement agencies opened an investigation into allegations that South Florida law enforcement personnel were being paid bribes by local wrecker operators to illegally solicit business from stranded drivers at accident scenes.
Chambers was one of the officers identified as taking bribes.
In 2014, an FBI confidential source approached Sepulveda, the owner and operator of a local Miami based towing company.
Under FBI direction, the confidential source told Sepulveda that he had a corrupt “chiropractor” that was interested in purchasing confidential accident information from law enforcement in order to permit the chiropractor to illegally solicit business from the accident victims.
Sepulveda agreed to participate and introduced the confidential source to Trooper Chambers.
Between September and November 2014, Chambers used his position to download the personal information of approximately 100 accident victims from Florida Highway Patrol servers.
Chambers provided that information to the confidential source in return for $5,000, during a series of transactions. For his part in the conspiracy, Sepulveda was paid $1,200.
On January 22, 2015, Chambers was interviewed by the FBI and admitted participating in the bribery scheme.
Chambers also admitted being paid thousands of dollars in bribes by various tow truck operators for a number of years.
The FBI Miami Area Corruption Task Force, Florida Division of Insurance Fraud and the Florida Highway Patrol investigated this case.