FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 26, 2007
CODY NEIL ADAMS SENTENCED IN U.S. DISTRICT COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Great Falls, on October 25, 2007, before U.S. District Judge Sam E. Haddon, CODY NEIL ADAMS, a 22-year-old resident of Hays, appeared for sentencing. ADAMS was sentenced to a term of:
- Probation: 3 years
- Special Assessment: $100
- Restitution: $2,265.91
- Supervised Release: 3 years
ADAMS was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to theft of federal government money.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
On March 13, 2007, the Office of Inspector General for the General Services Administration (GSA) received allegations from a GSA Transportation Operations Specialist in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, that a GSA Voyager gas card for a GSA vehicle had provided incorrect odometer readings for the past six months. The Voyager card and its corresponding vehicle were assigned to the Fort Belknap Police Department Indian Reservation located at Fort Belknap.
The GSA Office in Billings contacted Fort Belknap to inquire about the improper odometer readings on the suspect gas card. According to the Fort Belknap Police Department, the suspect card had been missing for some time and the vehicle it was assigned to had been sitting idle and was not being used.
On March 15, 2007, the Chief of Police for the Fort Belknap Police Department informed the Office of Inspector General that on March 13, 2007, he went to the Exxon-Mobil Town Pump, in Havre and obtained interior and exterior video surveillance of the gas station for March 9, 2007. A review of the surveillance showed that ADAMS, a Fort Belknap police officer, had filled up his personal vehicle on March 9, 2007 at 3:41 a.m. This was the exact same date, time and location of a transaction made with the suspect Voyager card.
A review of the transaction report for suspect gas card from August 25, 2006, to March 18, 2007, revealed the same odometer input readings of 70,330 miles for the past 149 transactions, including the gas purchase made on March 9, 2007.
On March 19, 2007, agents with the Office of Inspector General for the GSA and Office of Inspector General for the Department of the Interior interviewed ADAMS. ADAMS admitted to stealing the GSA Voyager gas card on August 25, 2006, and using it to purchase gas for his personal vehicle from approximately August 25, 2006, to March 18, 2007. ADAMS also confessed that he fraudulently used the card approximately 152 times for a total amount of $2,000 to $2,500.
ADAMS retrieved the suspect card from his personal vehicle and surrendered the gas card to investigating agents.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that ADAMS will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, ADAMS does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl E. Rostad prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Office of Inspector General for the General Services Administration and the Office of Inspector General for the Department of the Interior.
