Officer Tracie Medus, a 17-year
NOPD veteran, was suspended without pay Tuesday after the U.S. attorney's
office charged her with stealing funds from the post-Katrina recovery program
Road Home. Her attorney said she is cooperating with investigators. (NOPD
yearbook)
By Naomi Martin, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
A New Orleans police officer is
charged with stealing $158,700 from the state's Road Home recovery program
created after Hurricane Katrina.
Tracie Medus, an officer for 17
years, was suspended without pay Tuesday after federal prosecutors charged her
with theft of government funds, authorities said. Her attorney, Townsend Myers,
said she is cooperating with prosecutors.
Medus, 39, is accused of taking
money between July 2009 and March 2011 from the Road Home's small rental
property program. She "knew she was not entitled" to the funds, which
were awarded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,
according to prosecutors. Read the charging papers here.
The program, which is aimed at
shoring up more affordable housing for low to middle-income renters, provides
small-time landlords forgivable loans to restore rental properties that were
destroyed. In exchange, the landlords must agree to rent the property at
relatively low, set rates to tenants who meet certain income requirements.
According to a source close to
Medus, she restored her properties and rented them out. But prosecutors allege
that she overcharged her tenants in rent and at least one of her tenants did
not meet the income eligibility rules for the program, the source said.
Medus plans to repay the money,
her lawyer says.
"We are working with the
United States government and the Road Home program to repay all loan monies
received and to achieve a result that is fair both to the government and to
Officer Medus," Myers said.
If convicted as charged, Medus
faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to twice the amount stolen,
prosecutors in U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite's office said.
During the investigation, the
NOPD in August placed Medus on administrative reassignment, or desk duty. She
was most recently assigned to the NOPD's 6th District, which covers the Garden
District and Central City, said department spokesman Tyler Gamble.
In March 2012, the department
suspended Medus for three days for arguing with her supervisor and calling him
"ADD--Attention Deficit Disorder," according to a story by
