An Aurora police officer charged with theft by deception – who was recently fired by the department – appeared in court Wednesday morning, when her lawyer and the judge arranged for her next pre-trial hearing to take place in late January.
Kimberly R. Hanson, 43, of Plano, is next scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. Jan. 27 in Aurora Branch Court. The courtroom is adjacent to the police headquarters on the 1200 block of Indian Trail Road.
Hanson, who joined the department in 1996, was terminated from the department in late November, according to an email from police spokesman Dan Ferrelli.
Wearing blue jeans and a black-and-white jacket with St. Charles Rugby stitched on the back, Hanson on Wednesday stood in front of Judge Todd B. Tarter to the left of her attorney, David Camic, who spoke on her behalf.
Camic, who was an Aurora police officer himself in the 1970s and ’80s, has largely declined to comment on the allegations against Hanson, but previously told the Beacon-News he’s afraid the police department is more concerned with its image than with justice.
Police Chief Kristen Ziman, however, has stood by the criminal charge, calling the pursuit “the right thing” and saying Hanson stole from taxpayers and dishonored the department. The public expects police officers to be held to the same standard of conduct as residents, and Ziman thinks police officers who take oaths to uphold and enforce laws should be held to an even higher standard, the chief has said.
An ongoing internal police investigation and separate criminal investigation led to the misdemeanor charge against Hanson.
Hanson, who makes $46.75 per hour, was scheduled to end her shift at 11 p.m. Sept. 29. Hanson radioed at 10:23 p.m. that she was assisting a motorist near Route 59 and Liberty Street on Aurora’s Far East Side and planned to stay with the motorist until a tow truck arrived, putting her into overtime, according to charging documents.
Supervisors said footage from Hanson’s in-squad video system shows the officer was instead driving around the Route 59 station’s parking lot and nearby area and parking for an “extended period of time” at the police headquarters, according to the department.
The allegedly fabricated call enabled her to collect an extra $71.14 in overtime pay.
Hanson was placed on administrative leave with pay on Oct. 3 as the internal investigation continued, and was terminated effective Nov. 23, according to the police department. A warrant for her arrest was issued Nov. 3, and she turned herself in Nov. 8 at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department. She has been out on $100 bond.
In April, Hanson was ordered suspended without pay for one day, May 25, after an internal investigation into a complaint filed against Hanson with the Office of Professional Standards concluded she had been absent from duty without report, according to a suspension letter provided by the department in response to a previous open records request.
On Jan. 10, the training division notified Hanson she was to attend a mandatory training from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 21 on her off-duty time, for which she was to be compensated at the overtime rate.
Hanson failed to attend the training and did not notify the training division or a supervisor of her absence, according to a performance complaint signed by an Aurora police sergeant Feb. 11.
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