Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors this week charged a former Philadelphia Fire Department supervisor with bribery in connection with what investigators described as a brazen overtime abuse scheme<\/a> that involved her accepting cash from a colleague in exchange for approving fraudulent time sheets.<\/p>\n Marian Farris, 55, a former supervisor in the department\u2019s payroll unit, faces one felony count of bribery and related theft charges. She was charged Tuesday by information, a process that is typically used when a defendant intends to plead guilty.<\/p>\n Attorneys for Farris, who resigned from the department in March 2025, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges.<\/p>\n According to charging papers filed in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Farris accepted multiple payments from a fire department employee that totaled more than $9,000 between 2023 and 2024. In exchange for those payments, prosecutors allege Farris made more than 300 fraudulent entries in the city\u2019s payroll system amounting to more than $139,000 in payments to the employee.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Ex-Philly fire department officials accused of overtime fraud are likely at center of federal probe, records show<\/a><\/p>\n Some of the overtime claims, according to prosecutors, were logistically impossible. Prosecutors wrote that Farris on 16 occasions credited the employee \u2014 identified only as \u201cJ.M.\u201d in charging papers \u2014 with working 22 to 24 hours of overtime in a single 24-hour period. On other occasions, prosecutors wrote, the employee was credited with working overtime while she was vacationing in Bermuda, Cancun, and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n The Inquirer previously reported<\/a> that Farris was under federal criminal investigation and that she was at the center of two tangled investigations into alleged misconduct at the fire department. <\/p>\n The city\u2019s Office of the Inspector General led one investigation into the overtime abuse and found that Farris conspired with former paramedic Jacqulyn Murphy to defraud the city by abusing the system.<\/p>\n In a separate probe, the city retained a law firm to examine multiple sexual harassment allegations lodged by Murphy and other women against Anthony Hudgins, a former deputy commissioner and the department\u2019s No. 2 in charge. According to court records, several women, including Murphy, told city investigators that Hudgins made sexual advances, including unwanted hugging and inappropriate comments.<\/p>\n