A Harris County grand jury indicted retired HPD Officer Matthew Calley Thursday for the first degree felony offenses of Theft over $200,000 and Misapplication of Fiduciary Property over $200,000. This concludes a months-long investigation conducted by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Division and the Houston Police Department’s Major Fraud Division. Calley faces up to 99 years or life in prison and up to a $10,000 fine if convicted of the offenses.
Calley was a long-serving member of the Houston Police Officers’ Union (HPOU) and a member of the HPOU Board of Directors. While a member of the HPOU Board of Directors, Calley was the chairman of the HPOU Ways and Means Committee and the chairman of the HPOU Political Action Committee. As the chairman of these respective committees, Calley had signatory authority over the bank accounts for both the Ways and Means Committee and the Political Action Committee. Calley had been entrusted with the sole responsibility for managing the assets of these accounts and of making expenditures in the best interest of the HPOU and its members.
In January, the Public Integrity Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and the Houston Police Department’s Financial Crimes Division began conducting an investigation into Calley’s management of these accounts. This investigation was initiated in response to a report made by HPOU President Gary Blankinship. On January 22, Blankinship had been contacted by a fraud investigator with Capital One, who advised that they had identified several suspicious and possibly fraudulent payments to a personal credit card account with HPOU funds.
The indictments allege that Calley exploited his position as chairman of the HPOU Ways and Means Committee and chairman of the HPOU Political Action Committee to unlawfully appropriate funds and contributions from each of their accounts. The indictments allege that the timing of the theft and fraud committed by Calley began as early as June 2003 and the scheme proceeded as a continuing course of criminal conduct through January 2010.
