Westminster Investigator Charged With Stealing $12K In Timesheets

SEAL BEACH, CA — A former civilian investigator with the Westminster Police Department was charged with multiple felonies for lying on timesheets and stealing more than $12,000, the Orange County District Attorney's Office reported Tuesday.

Huntington Beach resident Nadia Arlett Alvarez Poblete, 26, has been charged with one felony county of grand theft by an employee and 14 felony counts of presenting a false claim, OCDA Todd Spitzer said in a news release.

Alvarez is scheduled to be arraigned at the Stephen K. Tamura Justice Center in Department W12 on Feb. 8. She is accused of altering her timesheets to reflect that she worked twice the amount of hours she had actually worked, the news release said. According to the release, Alvarez was paid for 566 hours that she did not work between Jan. 6, 2021 and Oct. 22, 2021.

Alvarez is no longer employed by the Westminster Police Department.

“The trust that the public must have in its law enforcement agencies does not rest solely with the uniformed officer,” Spitzer said in the news release. “The public’s confidence rests in the professionalism and ability of every person employed by that agency, from the front counter staff to the chief and everyone in between. Thankfully, the Westminster Police Department recognized the untruthfulness by one of its employees and took immediate action to put a stop to it and protect precious taxpayer dollars.”

Alvarez's reported charges were discovered after a supervisor in the Westminster Police Department Crimes Against Persons Unit noticed that she was often not at her workstation during her scheduled shifts and would leave before her shifts were over, the news release said.

Soon after the theft was discovered, the Westminster Police Department turned over the case to the Orange County District Attorney's Office for prosecution.