LANSING – Lying on your community service form or signing a form for someone else who you know did not complete their court ordered service could cost you $500 or 30 days in jail under a bill introduced by State Representative Dudley Spade (D-Tipton).
"Community service is a terrific tool to help people repay the community for the problems they have caused and provides a way for them to pay fines when they do not have the money available," Spade said. "As with every system, however, there are those who seek to circumvent the process. This defrauds the community of the service they were supposed to receive and, in cases where the sentence is used in lieu of a fine, it is the equivalent of a theft of public resources."
Courts in Michigan often use community service as a primary penalty and an alternative to jail. Sadly, despite the lenient penalty, some defendants still try to circumvent the system and will enlist others to help them do so. While some avenues do exist for the court to pursue the defendant they are limited and there is little that the court can do to penalize a person who knowingly falsified a form for someone else.
"I have had cases where a friend of the defendant signs the community service sheet for the defendant, 'verifying' that the hours were worked, when, in fact they were not," said District Court Judge James E. Sheridan. "I have had another case where the manager of a charity actually took money from a defendant to sign the paper. Community service is really to pay back the community for a wrong that was done by the defendant, by signing off on hours that were not worked, these criminals are cheating the community out of the restitution that it is due. If service hours are used in lieu of fines, it is basically a theft of public resources."
The legislation introduced by Spade would provide that a person sentenced by the court to perform community service who knowingly provides false information about his or her performance of that service or a person who knowingly provides false information to the court on behalf of a person sentenced to community service is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 30 days or a fine of not more than $500.