Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of grand theft. Simmons, a Richfield police officer, stole more than $26,000 from the department's "Shop with a Cop" program.

(Summit County Prosecutor's Office)

AKRON, Ohio - A 17-year veteran Richfield police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing money from the department's Shop with a Cop program.

Michael Simmons, 42, of Stow pleaded guilty to one count of grand theft, a fourth-degree felony, according to the Summit County Prosecutor's Office. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 1.

Simmons began working for the department in 1999 and oversaw its Shop with a Cop program since it began in 2003, a news release from the prosecutor's office states. He was charged after the Ohio Attorney General's Office's Bureau of Criminal Investigation discovered that $26,709 was missing from the program's account.

The bureau investigated the theft in January at the request of Richfield police chief.

Simmons used the stolen cash to buy tickets to sports games, electronics, clothes, tools and gift cards, the news release says.

When Simmons was charged in the case, he was placed on unpaid leave. He remains on unpaid leave pending an internal disciplinary process that will determine his employment status, Richfield police spokesman Lt. Joe Davis said Wednesday.

Shop with a Cop programs are common within police departments across the country. The initiative pairs financially-struggling families with law enforcement officers for a shopping trip, typically around the winter holidays.

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