EVANSVILLE — The Evansville Police Department officers charged with stealing thousands of dollars from a public housing agency and a department store through an off-duty payment scheme acknowledged in text messages they were “getting free money.”
That’s according to an internal review of more than 450,000 text messages between the officers, husband and wife Bill and Stacy Shirley. The couple turned themselves in at the Vanderburgh County jail Monday after a judge issued warrants for their arrest.
The text messages, some of which are cited in probable cause affidavits, and other evidence including GPS data, electronic time punch systems and social media posts show the couple logged tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of work at Evansville Housing Authority properties despite not showing up for their shifts over a span of months, detectives allege.
Sgt. Bill Shirley, 45, and Lt. Stacy Shirley, 43, didn’t spend long in jail, according to their attorney, who said they were released after posting $500 bonds.
They face dozens of felony and misdemeanor counts of fraud and charges of official misconduct and corrupt business influence. During a hearing Tuesday afternoon, Bill and Stacy Shirley pleaded not guilty.
Scott Danks, the couple’s attorney, said his clients denied the charges and told the Courier & Press they “did not intentionally mean to defraud anyone.”
Evansville Chief of Police Phil Smith, speaking to reporters Monday, called the Shirley’s actions “beyond reprehensible.”
“There are hundreds of good officers wearing this very uniform that are left picking up the pieces,” Smith said.
Prominent officers become ensnared in criminal probe
In lengthy sworn declerations, EPD detectives who for years worked alongside the Shirleys explained in granular detail how and why the couple allegedly bilked the EHA and a department store out of thousands of dollars in payments for security work.
Detectives assert that Bill and Stacy Shirley used the allegedly ill-gotten gains to help cover “lavish” vacations – including an international cruise – a lease for a luxury SUV, nights out on the town and other expenses that had winnowed down the couple’s finances.
The criminal investigation that would culminate in the Shirleys’ arrests got its start in May just a few weeks after Stacy Shirley represented the EPD in the annual benefit boxing tournament “Guns & Hoses,” which pits police officers against firefighters.
On April 12, the day of the tournament, the EPD took to Facebook to praise Stacy Shirley for winning her fight and helping “the guns” come out on top 9-6 against the firefighters.
911 Gives Hope, the charity sponsor for the event, prominently featured Stacy Shirley in Guns & Hoses promotional material, writing in a Feb. 19 Facebook post that her bout against Megan Miller was “highly anticipated.”
At the time, Stacy Shirley oversaw the EPD’s juvenile division and had logged more than 20 years of service with the department. Her husband, a 17-year veteran of the EPD, was a second-shift motor patrol sergeant with stints at the department’s elite Street Crimes Unit and as a SWAT Team member.
In 2019, Evansville radio station KISS 106 named Bill Shirley “Tri-State Officer of the Year.”
Within weeks of winning her Guns & Hoses fight, one of the Shirleys’ fellow officers raised concerns to their supervisor about the couple’s off-duty work for the Evansville Housing Authority, according to Smith.
The officer who came forward said it didn’t seem like Bill and Stacy Shirley were showing up for their shifts. The officer’s supervisor brought the complaint to Smith, and on May 13 EPD Det. Patrick McDonald was tasked with launching an investigation into the couple’s off-duty work.
The initial complaint against the Shirleys alleged they were each making between $1,400 and $1,800 per month for what were supposed to be four-hour shifts at EHA properties. The pay rate was between $40 and $70 per hour.
The taxpayer-funded EHA operates government-subsidized housing complexes, including the Kennedy Towers in Downtown Evansville and the John M. Caldwell Homes, and provides housing vouchers and other assistance to low-income residents.
Evansville police officers routinely work off-duty as security personnel at EHA properties, according to local officials. Bill Shirley was in charge of scheduling off-duty officers for their shifts.
Writing in a sworn affidavit, McDonald said he began his inquiry by collecting the couple’s EHA invoices and shift schedules. Then he spoke to the other officers who worked off-duty for the housing authority.
“They reported not encountering the Shirleys working off-duty in either (apartment) complex and could not remember the last time they did,” McDonald wrote.
On May 16, detectives interviewed the Shirleys at the EPD headquarters. Any discrepancies in their off-duty pay could be explained through innocent explanations, the couple said, according to detectives.
“(Stacy Shirley) stated she rarely works the same days she is scheduled and just invoices her scheduled dates,” McDonald wrote.
Bill Shirley reportedly told investigators he may have worked in person sporadically for EHA but that he would log his hours in standard shifts, because it wasn’t “really going to matter,” his arrest affidavit states.
When asked to confirm whether he worked 32 hours each month at the Caldwell Homes complex, McDonald said Bill Shirley responded, “Yeah, just about.”
“He admitted that there were entire months where he wasn’t on property but billed the 32 hours at Caldwell beacuse he was handling things by phone,” McDonald wrote. “He stated he was putting in 32 hours of work per month.”
A review of Bill Shirley’s correspondance with EHA property managers showed far fewer interactions than Bill Shirley had claimed, detectives allege, cutting against the officer’s claim that he had worked remotely.
Bill Shirley also reportedly told detectives he didn’t always drive his GPS-tracked police cruiser when working off duty, a defense that would help explain why the vehicle was seldom located at EHA properties.
The GPS tracker in Bill Shirley’s police cruiser, however, showed he did in fact use the vehicle frequently when off duty, including for trips to popular Evansville bars, his arrest affidavit states, but rarely to EHA apartment complexes.
Furthermore, a search of the city’s Flock Safety license-plate camera system for the Shirleys’ personal vehicles returned no hits in the area of EHA apartment complexes, McDonald alleged in the affidavits.
‘You’re getting free money’ — text messages, GPS data bolsters case against officers
The inquiry into the Shirleys included a review of nearly 450,000 text messages, and thousands of GPS-tagged photos in addition to the GPS data from the Shirleys’ police cruisers, the affidavits state.
The findings of that review were damning, according to detectives.
McDonald wrote in Stacy Shirley’s arrest affidavit that he found no evidence she had worked a shift at any EHA property in the past year and that Bill Shirley logged full shifts at EHA properties even though evidence showed conclusively he was elsewhere.
For example, McDonald wrote that he reviewed the GPS data for Bill Shirley’s police cruiser for the entire month of April and found that he only spent a combined 3 hours and 20 minutes at EHA properties despite collecting $1,600 in payments that month.
On April 4, text messages showed Bill and Stacy Shirley discussing whether they should claim to have worked for EHA even when they were out of town on a cruise, according to messages cited in their arrest affidavits.
On Jan. 7, a text exchange appeared to show Stacy Shirley lamenting that her husband had given her “less EHA days.” Later in the conversation, Bill Shirley texted his wife, “You’re getting free money. I’m doing my best dear.”
According to detectives who reviewed the messages, Stacy Shirley replied with three eye-roll emojis and told her husband to “do better.” Bill Shirley would later tell his wife to “quit bitching,” the messages showed.
The alleged scheme spanned about a year with regard to EHA, from May 2024 through April, the affidavits state. The investigation also found that Bill and Stacy Shirley likewise conspired to defraud Dillards out of payments for off-duty security work for nearly a year, beginning in May 2024.
Bill Shirley, who worked part time at the department store, would clock his wife in even when he drove to the store alone and while Stacy Shirley was working her EPD shifts, detectives allege.
“As I reviewed Stacy Shirley’s (Dillards) time card, I noticed that she was clocking in during the middle of the day during the week,” McDonald wrote in her arrest affidavit. “This was surprising, because she works for EPD from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.”
Over a 12-month span, Stacy Shirley collected $1,012 in payments from Dillard’s “without her ever working,” McDonald stated.
Detectives cite text messages from August 2024, March 2024 and August 2023 and earlier that appear to show Bill and Stacy Shirley discussing financial hardships they faced, which could speak to a motive for the alleged scheme.
On Aug. 1, 2024, Stacy Shirley told her husband about a banking overdraft charge, writing in a text message that they “ate out too much” and that she “spent too much,” according to the affidavits.
A few months earlier, on March 16, Bill Shirley texted his wife, stating, “You think I like working all the time? I hate it, but we have expenses.”
In a conversation on Aug. 1, 2023, between Stacy Shirley and a third party, she wrote in text messages that she would have to choose between paying for her children’s private school tuition or canceling the lease for her Lexus GX460, an SUV that retails for more than $60,000.
On Feb. 9, 2023, Stacy Shirley texted her husband to state that she was “hoping to have” a check from EHA for off-duty work because she was “broke,” according to detectives.
“The investigation shows that Bill and Stacy worked together to knowingly and intentionally defraud EHA of tens of thousands of dollars,” McDonald concluded in the affidavits. “They scheduled dates, completed fraudulent activity logs, completed fraudulent invoices and then cashed the payroll checks all while clearly having no intention of actually working the assigned shifts.”
Bill and Stacy Shirley are next scheduled to appear in court Aug. 8. Smith placed the couple on paid administrative leave after their answers during the May 16 interviews failed to satisfy investigators, but their leave was transitioned to unpaid when prosecutors moved forward with criminal charges.
The Shirleys’ continued employment with the EPD and the nature of their potential departures from the agency will be decided by the Police Merit Board, according to Smith.
“I commend the officer that brought this to our attention,” Smith said. “That shows that no one dislikes a dishonest cop more than a good cop … This was an act by two individuals that used their position and authority for the wrong reasons, and they will have to answer for that.”
Houston Harwood can be contacted at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Bill and Stacy Shirley Evansville officers charged for payment fraud
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