Campus Police Allege Cover-Up in College's $1.5M Textbook Theft Scheme

College says charges are meritless, no textbooks missing

Three Collin College police officers claimed Monday that three college officials tried to cover up a scheme to steal $1.5 million in textbooks and should resign.

The officers filed a whistleblower lawsuit in August claiming the Texas school, located about 30 miles northeast of Dallas, retaliated against them by changing their work schedules and subjecting them to a hostile work environment.

The three called a news conference Monday morning to ask for the resignations.

"We want the taxpayers to hold these officials accountable," said attorney Victoria Neave. "It appears they're sweeping this information under the rug and we want to let the public know that it takes a lot of courage to come out and tell the public that your own police department is corrupt."

In a statement later Monday morning, Collin College fired back, calling the officers disgruntled and their lawsuit meritless.

The college, formerly known as Collin County Community College, has 52,000 students and has campuses in Plano, McKinney, Allen, Frisco and Rockwall.

The officers, Billy Burleson, Jon Mark and Craig Bennight, said college officials ordered them to stop investigating the disappearance of a large number of textbooks worth $1.5 million.

They claimed their investigation led them to believe high-ranking college officials were involved.

"Their investigation began with a low-level employee and started to show a complex scheme that started to lead up to high-ranking officials at Collin College," Neave said.

Neave said three officials — the police chief, director of public safety, and chief financial officer, should resign because they helped cover up the crime.

She said the college president’s resignation in September was related to the case.

Neave also said someone left a note at one of the officer’s homes after they filed a grievance but shortly before the lawsuit was filed threatening the lives of all three officers. The note is currently in the custody of the Collin County Sheriff’s office, they said.

"That too is being swept under the rug and is not being investigated so we are seriously concerned for their safety," she said.

In a strongly-worded statement, Collin College said, “A meritless lawsuit was filed last August by three disgruntled Collin College police officers, and these allegations are unsubstantiated.”

The college said there has been no cover-up and an investigation found there were no missing textbooks.

“The college immediately turned the investigation over to two independent third-party firms who heard and investigated their accusations and found them to be inaccurate and unsubstantiated,” the statement said.

The bookstore had changed computer systems which resulted in the “perceived issues” and a review did not find any evidence of a theft, the college said.

The officers’ attorney said the FBI and other agencies are investigating the alleged theft.

Dallas FBI spokeswoman Katherine Chaumont declined to comment.

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