On July 21, Christopher Hayes, former president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 8, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island to six months in prison, to be followed by six months of home confinement, three years of probation and 300 hours of community service, for wire fraud in connection with his theft of $71,523 in funds from the Newport, R.I.-based union. He also was ordered to pay full restitution. Hayes, a former Newport police sergeant, had pleaded guilty in May after being charged in March with diverting union funds by a variety of means to his own personal use during August 2009-December 2014. The actions follow a joint probe by the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General, and the Rhode Island State Police.
