Baltimore PD ‘poster boy’ caught using fake diploma, indicted for theft

A Baltimore officer with over three decades of service has been indicted on theft charges after prosecutors found he used a fake diploma.

Last week, detective and computer forensic analyst Staccato Butler was charged with two counts of theft of at least $10,000 but less than $100,000 for “unlawfully presenting as genuine a false diploma.”

A (now former) member of Baltimore police’s Cyber and Electronic Crimes Unit, Butler was also a member of High Technology Crime Adjunct Faculty at the University of Baltimore.

BPD confirmed on Monday that Butler is no longer an officer with the department and the University of Baltimore declined to comment on the charges, calling it a “personnel matter.”

In an interview last Thursday with The Baltimore Sun, Butler said that he had yet to be informed of formal charged by the State’s Attorney’s Office.

“I knew the police department was doing an investigation but I had no idea I was indicted,” Butler said.

Butler said he had recently retired from the force and that his only job was at the University of Baltimore.

“I did enjoy my time at the police department,” Butler said. “Probably some of the best times of my life there except for this particular incident. Other than that I have no ill feelings for the department.”

Butler was somewhat of a poster boy for Baltimore PD, having been featured in BDP promotional videos and awarded several medals and awards for heroic acts during his time in service with the department.

In 1997, Butler was recovering from throat cancer when he managed to thwart a bank robbery, getting into a melee with the suspect before subduing him. During the tussle, he was almost shot with his own weapon. He would receive the department’s Bronze Star.

“It was the most scared I’ve ever been in my life,” he was reported to have said at the time.

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