Oakland city worker embezzled from Home Depot

OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - "Just go ahead and turn around for me. Put your hands around your back. Interlock your fingers."

Emeryville police body-cam video released to KTVU shows officers arresting city of Oakland Public Works Department employee Candice Jessie in December for repeatedly stealing from the cash register at the Home Depot where she also worked.

As Christmas music plays in the background, Jessie told officers she didn't want to talk to them.

"We can move forward. I don't have a statement to make," she said.

But surveillance videos obtained by KTVU tell the story. Police say she was caught on camera stealing money 27 different times over a four-month period.

Police say she used the cash drawer to hide the fact that she was secretly pocketing cash.

All told, authorities say she stole more than $6,000 from Home Depot. 

She spent two days in jail and pleaded no contest in July to a misdemeanor count of embezzlement. Alameda County prosecutors dropped a misdemeanor count of grand theft. She was placed on three years' probation.

"She is very remorseful for this, for this activity, and she's gonna make amends," said defense attorney Chris Dobbins, adding his client had hit a rough patch.

"She would admit that it's a wrong thing, but she had a  lot of extenuating circumstances in her family, she had a death in the family, she had some other issues going on that we're not really at liberty to discuss," Dobbins said.

For the past two years, Jessie helped pick members of the Oakland Police Commission, which oversees the department's policies and officer misconduct investigations. 

But on Tuesday, after KTVU began asking about the case, Jessie resigned as vice chair of the commission's selection panel. Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor will likely appoint her replacement on the panel.

Jessie's court case was handled right across from the Oakland Police Department, where years ago she worked as a grant writer.

KTVU spoke to Rashidah Grinage of the Coalition for Police Accountability, which monitors Oakland police oversight issues.

"It's very ironic, because when I first met Ms. Jessie, she worked for the Oakland Police Department, so this becomes very ironic," Grinage said.