A former police sergeant was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stealing more than $43,000 in wages from the small police department where he worked in Lakeside by misreporting the hours he worked on his timesheet.
The Lakeside Police Department fired Sgt. Howard Prince in January after the department completed an internal investigation into employees’ timesheets, Chief Kenneth Fountain said in a news release.
The department, which polices a small part of Jefferson County on Denver’s western border that includes Lakeside Amusement Park and a Walmart, launched the investigation after two sergeants in July 2025 alleged Prince had falsified attendance on his timesheet.
Prince, 63, is now facing charges of theft between $20,000 and $100,000, official misconduct and 51 counts of forgery, court records show.
In a review of Prince’s timesheets, dispatch logs, and key fob and cellphone data from 2022 through November 2025, when Prince was employed full-time, Arvada police suspect he stole $43,505, according to an arrest affidavit. Lakeside police brought the case to Arvada to ensure the criminal investigation was conducted with “transparency and integrity,” Fountain wrote in the release.
In at least 60 instances, Prince said he had worked hours but had never logged in via dispatch or entered the police building, the affidavit states. Cellphone data appeared to show Prince wasn’t in the Lakeside area, but instead at home.
In one instance, a Lakeside sergeant working an off-duty shift noted that Prince wasn’t on duty and was instead at a Savannah Bananas baseball game, according to the affidavit.
Prince also logged regular hours at the same time as off-duty shift hours, typically at Walmart, which resulted in him being paid double for the time he actually worked, according to the affidavit.
Prince was paid between $40 and $47 per hour, and $66 to $69 per hour for overtime, the affidavit states. For off-duty shifts, typically at the Walmart, he earned $95 per hour.
In other instances, Prince logged overtime hours that were “questionable” or logged that he started work earlier or ended later than he actually did, according to the affidavit.
“The allegations in this case do not reflect the standards, values or level of policing expected of the Lakeside Police Department,” Fountain said in a statement. “The authority entrusted to police officers carries with it an equally significant responsibility to act lawfully, ethically and with integrity.”
