A senior New Orleans police officer was arrested Friday morning on more than 300 counts of payroll fraud after allegedly taking thousands of dollars in extra pay.
Brandon Coleman, 39, is accused of receiving more than $111,000 in unlawful overtime payments and submitting false public records to obtain further pay between December 2024 and December 2025.
In April, the Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigations Division and the New Orleans Office of Inspector General initiated an investigation into Coleman. They identified disparities between Coleman’s stated and real overtime hours, as well as between the locations he recorded being at and his physical locations, according to state police.
Officers issued a warrant for Coleman’s arrest, and he was taken into the Orleans Parish jail on Friday morning for 325 counts of submitting false public documents, 23 charges of public payroll fraud, one crime of misconduct in office, and one case of theft.
NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick stated that the agency was fully cooperating with the probe.
“Accountability and integrity are fundamental to this department, and we will continue to cooperate as the case moves forward,” Kirkpatrick said in a statement given by State Police.
Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office will prosecute the case.
“We will continue holding public officials accountable for abusing the public’s trust,” Murrill declared.
Coleman is one of numerous NOPD officers currently under investigation for salary theft. Sgt. Henry Burke was fired in July for several payroll breaches and filing fraudulent reports, months after being arrested by the NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau on similar claims. Burke’s case has been forwarded to the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana for consideration.
The OIG alerted NOPD officials in April that numerous of the department’s payroll methods make it vulnerable to fraud.
Coleman appeared before New Orleans Magistrate Court Judge Juana Lombard on Friday morning. His bail is set at $3.4 million. According to jail records, he was freed on bond Friday afternoon.
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