Jeffery McAdams, a former president of the Gainesville Fraternal Order of Police Lodge, pleaded no contest Wednesday afternoon to charges that he stole more than $56,000 from the organization.
McAdams was arrested in relation to the missing money in 2015 and was charged with 2nd degree grand theft, a felony.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators believed McAdams “stole thousands by double billing the FOP for travel expenses, spending money at restaurants and bars and purchasing gift cards that did not benefit the Gator Lodge.”
This afternoon, McAdams stood before Judge Willard Pope at the Marion County Judicial Center and entered his plea with his attorneys, Kenneth Hamner and Robert Nesmith, by his side.
Pope told McAdams that pleading no contest means he neither admits nor denies the allegations that have been brought against him.
Also with the plea, McAdams gives up his right to be represented by an attorney during sentencing and to appeal any sentencing decisions the court makes.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 17, at 9 a.m. If found guilty, McAdams faces up to 15 years in prison.
McAdams was a Gainesville Police Department officer from 1993 until he retired from the department in October 2015. He was the Gainesville FOP Lodge president for 14 years and ran for Alachua County sheriff in 2006.
In 2014, GPD suspended McAdams after reporting concerns to FLDE about spending on the lodge’s debit card, which only McAdams controlled.
Nesmith, one of McAdams’ attorneys, said he wouldn’t comment until sentencing.