Court overturns conviction of former N.J. cop in police overtime theft case Updated Apr 29, 2021; A former Plainfield police officer who forfeited her position as part of a guilty plea in a departmental theft case has won an appeal that throws out her conviction and sends the matter back to the trial court. A state appeals court found the way Leslie Knight’s case ended in a guilty plea had factual problems. Knight was a sergeant in 2014 when she and another officer, then Lt. James Abney, were indicted on several dozen crimes accusing them of falsifying time sheets and police records to generate extra pay themselves for overtime or extra duty shifts they did not work.