Cop Turned Coin Thief Pleads Guilty

A Woodbridge man and former police officer who admitted to stealing coins from Metro and then using them to buy lottery tickets has plead guilty.

John Vincent Haile, 52, of Woodbridge and his accomplice, Dexter McDade, 58, of Bowie, Md., plead guilty to theft concerning programs receiving Federal funds and conspiring to commit money laundering.

Haile and McDade both worked for the Washington Metropolitan Transit Agency as a police officer and revenue collection technician, respectively, and have since been terminated from the transit agency.

“Shortly before midnight on January 18, each of these defendants was caught red-handed with $8,000 that they stole from WMATA,” said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride in a press release. “But this was just the tip of the iceberg. Over the course of several years, these men abused the trust Metro placed in them and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Metro and local taxpayers. They then laundered that stolen money through the Virginia Lottery system and local businesses. Today, they took the first step in being held responsible for such a brazen theft from our transportation system.”

McDade and Haile admitted to stealing at least $445,364 in cash and coins that was paid to Metro by customers as fares. During their shifts collecting funds from Metro stations and transporting those funds to the collection facility in Alexandria, the two men would make an unscheduled stop and conceal bags of money at an underpass in the parking lot of a Marriott Courtyard Hotel on Eisenhower Ave. in Alexandria. Later in the evening after completing their shifts, McDade and Haile would return to the underpass in their personal cars to retrieve the money they had hidden.

Haile had worked as a WMATA police officer since 1997 and McDade as a revenue collection technician since 1979, according to a press release.

Both men face a maximum penalty of 10 years on the theft charge and 20 years on the conspiracy charge when they are sentenced on June 15.