Home Cleveland Press Releases 2009 Former East Cleveland Detective Sentenced to 18 Months in Jail
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Former East Cleveland Detective Sentenced to 18 Months in Jail

U.S. Attorney’s Office March 31, 2009
  • Northern District of Ohio (216) 622-3600

William J. Edwards, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, announced that Tiffiney Cleveland, a former East Cleveland detective who resides in Euclid, Ohio, was sentenced today in the courtroom of United States District Judge Patricia A. Gaughan. Cleveland pled guilty on a prior date (January 7, 2009) to 10 counts of an 11-count indictment, specifically to one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana (Count 11), six counts of accessing law enforcement databases in excess of her authority (Counts 2-7), two counts of wire fraud (Counts 8 and 10), and one count of bank fraud (Count 9).

The sentence imposed upon Cleveland was as follows: a term of 18 months imprisonment on Counts 2 and 8 through 11; a concurrent term of 12 months imprisonment on Counts 3 through 7 (there is a 12-month statutory maximum sentence for these charges); a term of 3 years of supervised release on Counts 2 and 8 through 11; and a term of 1 year of supervised release on Counts 3 through 7. The Court further ordered that Cleveland pay restitution in the amount of $15,693.26 and imposed a $1000.00 special assessment.

In determining the sentence in this case, the Court considered the advisory Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which depend upon a number of factors unique to each case, including the defendant's prior criminal record, if any, the defendant's role in the offense and the unique characteristics of the violation. In all cases the sentence cannot exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum. In the plea agreement, the defendant and the government agreed to recommend a sentence in the range of 12 to 18 months.

Prior to February 3, 2005, Cleveland knew that her then-boyfriend, Lesean Roberts, had at least one prior felony drug conviction for which he had served time in prison and further knew that he was continuing to associate with persons he had met while incarcerated. Also prior to and during the time period near February 3, 2005, Cleveland believed that Roberts was engaged in some sort of improper behavior, but was unsure of the exact nature of such behavior. On or about February 3, 2005, Lesean Roberts called Cleveland while she was at work and asked her to run a license plate number through the CRIS, LEADS, and NCIC law enforcement databases. Roberts made the request to determine whether a potential customer with whom he was negotiating a large cocaine transaction was in fact working with law enforcement. However, when he asked to run the plate, Roberts told her that the driver of the car bearing that plate had tried to run him off the road. Cleveland deliberately ignored a high probability that Roberts had asked her to run this license plate in furtherance of his drug trafficking activities. Instead, Cleveland accessed her protected work computer, ran the license plate number, and reported the results to Roberts. Cleveland realized that, based on the license plate number, the car in question was likely associated with an undercover law enforcement operation. She also thought it unlikely that an undercover officer would attempt to run Roberts off the road. Cleveland reported her belief that the plates were associated with law enforcement to Roberts. Cleveland had no legitimate law enforcement interest in accessing the computer for information on the plates, which were, in fact being used by undercover ATF agents in a drug investigation of Roberts. Based on the information provided to him, Roberts called off the cocaine transaction he had arranged with the undercover ATF agents.

On four other occasions, Cleveland accessed law enforcement databases in excess of her authority and for personal reasons. More specifically, on February 10, 2005, Cleveland ran the license plate of her then-boyfriend, Lesean Roberts, and obtained information from the protected computer relating to his social security number and license plate. On August 28, 2005, Cleveland obtained information from the protected computer regarding the criminal history of her son’s father. On July 31, 2006, Cleveland obtained information from the protected computer regarding the criminal history and driver’s license photograph of a friend for that friend to use in relation to a job search. On April 30, 2007, Cleveland ran approximately 18 inquiries on the protected computer to obtain address and driver’s license information for a woman with whom she believed her husband was having an affair, as well as for that woman’s husband. On June 11, 2007, Cleveland ran 3 additional inquiries on the protected computer to obtain driver’s license information regarding a woman with whom she believed her husband was having an affair. Cleveland had no legitimate law enforcement purpose for making any of these computer inquiries or for obtaining any of the associated information, but rather obtained such information for personal use.

Cleveland assisted her husband in obtaining two mortgage loans and a car loan by providing false verification of employment at the City of East Cleveland for her husband, who had never been employed by the City of East Cleveland . After her husband was arrested on drug trafficking charges in July 2006, Cleveland requested an extension on a car loan payment falsely stating to the Eaton Family Credit Union that her husband was in a coma. In fact, her husband was in pretrial detention on the drug charges, and the car was in the possession of the Westlake Police Department.

In July 2006, Lesean Roberts (who was then incarcerated) enlisted the assistance of Tiffiney Cleveland to retrieve and distribute approximately 4.5 kilograms of marijuana owned by Lesean Roberts. Cleveland engaged in numerous telephone conversations with Roberts regarding the means by which to accomplish this objective. Cleveland further removed the approximate 4.5 kilograms of marijuana from the basement of the house she had shared with Roberts and took it to her mother’s house for safekeeping. After discussing the matter further with Roberts, Cleveland made arrangements to have a relative sell the marijuana to a third party. received $2800 in proceeds from the sale. Cleveland was aware that the substance that she conspired to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute was actually marijuana.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Ann C. Rowland and Rebecca Lutzko following investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Westlake Police Department and the East Police Department.
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