Larry D. Greenlee, 40, of Belleville, Illinois, was sentenced in federal district court to a term in prison today for theft of government property, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced.

“I will continue to pursue official corruption wherever it is found. In order that the citizens of any community in Southern Illinois may place trust in their police forces, I will not allow any type of official corruption to go unchallenged,” said United States Attorney Wigginton.

Greenlee, who will never work in law enforcement again, was sentenced to 66 days of incarceration, followed by four months of home confinement with electronic monitoring and three years’ supervised release, with a condition of supervision that he maintain full time employment or be enrolled full time in college. Greenlee was indicted in February 2011. Greenlee, then a police officer for the city of East St. Louis, failed an integrity test wherein federal agents placed a Rolex watch encircled with diamonds in a vehicle which appeared to be an abandoned stolen vehicle. Audio and video surveillance was in place around the vehicle. Federal agents were conducting a covert investigation following allegations of potential corruption within the city of East St. Louis Police Department. On September 17, 2010, Greenlee, while on duty as a police officer for the city of East St. Louis, responded to a call of a suspicious vehicle and then inventoried the contents of the vehicle prior to having the vehicle towed. Greenlee stole the Rolex watch from the vehicle and failed to include the Rolex watch on the inventory as part of his police report.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the assistance of the Illinois State Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Norman Smith.