Birmingham man indicted for fraud against Huntsville Police Officer’s memorial fund

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WAFF) - Devonte Lemond Hammonds of Birmingham was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for defrauding a memorial fund set up for the family of a Huntsville Police Officer who was killed in the line of duty.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama, Hammonds set up a scheme to fraudulently obtain money from the Billy Clardy Memorial Fund.

Billy Clardy III was a Huntsville Police Officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty in December of 2019.

The indictment against Hammonds says that he used the identity of another person to open a bank account and then transferred money from the memorial fund to that account.

The indictment says that Hammonds used the U.S. Postal Service website to reroute mail from Postal Service customers to addresses in Birmingham that he could access, and then used the rerouted mail to obtain personal information allowing him to open the fake account and perform other fraudulent activity.

Hammonds faces one charge of of access device fraud and three charges of wire fraud.

He could face 10-years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.