Former Avon police chief pleads guilty to stealing nearly $7K from school district
AVON, N.Y. — The former police chief in Avon has pleaded guilty to stealing federal funds and faces 10 years in prison and a hefty fine.
In 2023 and 2024, Joseph Greer was employed by the Avon Central School District as a School Resource Officer (SRO). Officials say Joseph Greer billed the district for hours that he didn’t work, but instead assigned the hours to an on-duty subordinate to cover for him.
The hours billed added up to a total loss of $6,866.84 from the district.
“During his time as Avon Police Chief, Joseph Geer violated his oath to protect his community,” said Matthew Miraglia, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI’s Buffalo Field Office. “Ultimately, Geer chose greed over integrity. The FBI will continue to work alongside our law enforcement partners to investigate allegations of fraud and hold public officials accountable.”
Greer’s sentencing is scheduled for June 5.
On Friday, the district sent out the following statement:
“We received word yesterday that the ongoing investigation into the former Avon Police Chief took a step forward. The former chief entered a guilty plea to the following: Title 18 United States Code 666 (Theft/Bribery from Institution receiving Federal Funds).
It is our understanding that the offender submitted claims for the school’s second school resource officer (SRO) coverage for hours that were actually assigned to a road patrol officer who was either on duty and diverted to the school, or called in for the assignment to the school. At the end of the day, the school district always had the coverage we paid for. However, by securing compensation directly, the offender was taking the payment for work he did not complete. Instead, the Village of Avon paid the road patrol officer who was assigned to school.
The school district’s role in this offense was that we did not have an adequate check-in check-out procedure for the second SRO resource that was put in place following the horrific school-shooting incident in Uvalde, Texas.
Avon Central School District corrected this shortcoming immediately upon learning of it. The expression goes, “Trust but verify.” We trusted, but we had to improve our efforts to verify. It is unfortunate that the former Chief of Police seems to have taken advantage of the trust placed in him.
The Avon Central School District continues to appreciate the partnership of the Town of Avon, Village of Avon, Mayor Hayes, Interim Chief Ferrarra, and the Avon Police Department’s rank and file for their continued efforts to provide for our integral SRO program.
-Avon Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ryan Pacatte”
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