Making over 760 phone calls, 52-year-old, Edward Reilly was busted and charged with a total of $20,125 due to sex chat lines he’d been making phone calls to since March 2005. Hit the jump to find out more!!
A state environmental engineer was busted Friday for ringing up more than $20,000 on sex chat lines using state phones.
Inspector General Ellen Biben charged Edward Reilly, a 52-year-old husband and father of three from the Albany area, with using phones at the Department of Environmental Conservation headquarters to call at least six “premium rate†sex lines.
Biben’s probers said Reilly made more than 760 phone calls, totaling 500 hours over a six-year period beginning in March 2005.
Much of the $20,125 bill was footed by the state agency with taxpayer cash.
Reilly, who surrendered to authorities, was suspended without pay from his $88,256-a-year job in June amid the investigation. He resigned in August after 28 years on the job.
“Theft from the state will not be tolerated, and my office will continue to vigorously root out individuals who abuse the public trust,†Biben said.
Reilly admitted that “for several years, he used conference rooms to place telephone calls to chat lines, some of which are local and others located in the Caribbean, the criminal complaint filed by investigator James Carroll said.
Probers said he used four conference rooms in hopes the calls couldn t be traced back to him.
He knew that for the calls to which he did not have a prepaid account, the Department of Environmental Conservation would be billed and have to pay, the complaint states.
Departmnt spokesman Michael Bopp said the agency initiated the probe in April based on an audit of telephone billings – and then turned it over to the IG s office.
An auditor witnessed Reilly four times using the phones in two conference rooms and checked the phone records to determine that he had called Quest Chat and Secret Encounters.
The inspector general s investigators found that Reilly also called VIP Club Sensual Chat, Metrovibe and Local Chat.
Reilly was charged with felony grand larceny and six felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing.
The latter five charges say that Reilly knowingly filed false time sheets saying he was working when he was spending hours talking dirty on the phone.
Reilly was arraigned in Albany City Court and released without bail pending further court action.
Reached by phone at his home, Reilly, who is still eligible for a comfortable state pension, had no comment. He faces up to seven years in prison on the grand larceny charge alone.
The environmental department said it has instituted restrictions on phone use that will prevent the misuse of these resources in the future.
