A Hallandale Beach police officer is expected to turn himself in on June 6 after being sentenced for illegally pawning service weapons.
After a department audit was performed, seven-year veteran Yan Kleyman, 33, was caught making 15 separate trips between March 2017 and August 2018 to a pawn shop where he pawned multiple service equipment including a semiautomatic rifle, semiautomatic pistol and a red-dot laser aim attachment.
Immediately after the audit, a criminal investigation started. The outcome of the investigation was that Kleyman was dealing in stolen property.
Kleyman resigned and turned himself on February 15, 2019 and was sentenced to 90 days in jail on Wednesday.
Hallandale Beach Police Chief Sonia Quinones took to Facebook the day Kleyman turned himself in and made the following statement:
“I speak for myself and our sworn in civilian personal, when I tell you that we hold our employees to the highest standards and never take the public trust for granted,” Quinones said.
Broward State Attorney Mike Satz announced Kleyman will serve 90 days in jail and four years probation along with paying more than $3,000 in restitution. He will also lose his law enforcement license.
The sentence was negotiated as part of Klryman’s no-contest plea.
According to Miami Herald:
““Today he took responsibility for his actions,” said Kleyman’s attorney, Richard Cooper. “This is one step in his road to personal recovery.””
Kleyman has been seeking counseling since August for his addiction and the department was aware of his addiction.
According to a Miami Herald article in February:
” “Chief Quinones would like for the public to think that my client’s alleged actions were unknown to the Department when his gambling addiction was well known by the top brass at Hallandale PD for years,” Cooper said. “Kleyman’s superiors knew about his mental health condition, condoned his addiction, and went as far as to deduct his gambling debts from his paychecks to repay his creditor fellow officers.” “
All firearms and equipment were recovered except two of the laser sights, which were sold on eBay after Kleyman failed to make his payments on time.
“It takes into account his illness,” Cooper said, “it was important to me that he has an opportunity to have a future.”
Previous to being hired in November 2011, Kleyman was fired in April 2009. Kleyman just got out of the police academy and not on patrol when he was fired for “failure to meet probationary employment requirements.”
When reporting a gun pointing incident, Kleyman advised that another officer pointed a gun at Kleyman’s chest, but 13 different witnesses stated that the gun was pointed downward at his shin.
