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Skeeter Manos

Skeeter Timothy Manos, the Lakewood police officer charged with embezzling more than $100,000 from a slain officers’ fund, has been fired.

Manos’ termination was effective Friday, according to a news release from the Lakewood Police Department. The termination was based on a recommendation by Police Chief Bret Farrar.

Manos, 34, had been with Lakewood police since September 2004.

Manos was charged last week with 10 counts of wire fraud, a felony, for allegedly stealing $150,000 from the fund set up for the families of the four Lakewood officers who were killed by Maurice Clemmons in November 2009.

The federal complaint alleges Manos used some of the money to take his wife to Las Vegas, where he withdrew $1,000 from ATMs and spent about $1,200 on rooms at the Bellagio hotel and tickets to a Cirque du Soleil performance. He also spent more than $7,000 at Home Depot and about $1,700 on snowboarding and other outdoor gear at REI, the complaint alleges.

According to this story by the News Tribune of Tacoma, Manos had a history of debt problems.

On Nov. 29, 2009, Clemmons fatally shot Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Gregory Richards as they sat in a coffee shop in Parkland. Clemmons was killed two days later by a Seattle police officer.