CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Two officials with the Charleston Town Center Mall said Tuesday in Kanawha Circuit Court that they sometimes had trouble with off-duty police officers working security, but could not recall specific problems with Keith Peoples.

Peoples, 45, is the fifth Charleston police officer to face charges for allegedly getting paid for his off-duty security job at the mall while he was still on the clock for the city.

During testimony on day two of Peoples' trial, mall general manager Tom Bird said that he turned over payroll records for off-duty officers in 2002 and 2004 after Charleston Police Department investigators asked for them.

Mall security director Dennis Lewis, himself a retired Charleston police officer, said that sometimes the off-duty officers, who were expected to wear their police uniforms while working security at the mall, were not as visible at the mall as he would have liked.

"We want them to be visible in uniform, particularly throughout the general areas of the mall," he said. "We have had occasions where we didn't see officers."

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Dwane Tinsley, Lewis admitted that Peoples was one of his better workers. Lewis, who was responsible for recruiting officers to work security, said Peoples was dependable and hardworking.

Tinsley asked Bird and Lewis about statements they gave to Capt. Lex Williamson and Capt. Kevin Perdue, the Charleston officers investigating allegations of double dipping, in May 2007.

In the statements, Bird and Lewis said they didn't have problems with officers leaving the mall for 15 or 20 minutes if they had to run out and conduct some police business.

As a member of the warrants unit, Peoples had to leave the mall a lot to go and arrest people, Lewis said. He didn't remember telling Peoples that he didn't have to use his magnetic card to swipe out of the mall's time clock every time he left.

"When he did call me to say that he was going to the station and back, or somewhere else and back, I wouldn't tell him no," he said.

Lewis told the investigators in 2007 that he tried not to micromanage the officers because it was sometimes hard to get enough to work at the mall, which didn't pay very well.

"I don't want to alienate them," he said in his statement. "And if a guy goes and [leaves the mall] for a few minutes, I don't see it as a problem."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Two officials with the Charleston Town Center Mall said Tuesday in Kanawha Circuit Court that they sometimes had trouble with off-duty police officers working security, but could not recall specific problems with Keith Peoples.

Peoples, 45, is the fifth Charleston police officer to face charges for allegedly getting paid for his off-duty security job at the mall while he was still on the clock for the city.

During testimony on day two of Peoples' trial, mall general manager Tom Bird said that he turned over payroll records for off-duty officers in 2002 and 2004 after Charleston Police Department investigators asked for them.

Mall security director Dennis Lewis, himself a retired Charleston police officer, said that sometimes the off-duty officers, who were expected to wear their police uniforms while working security at the mall, were not as visible at the mall as he would have liked.

"We want them to be visible in uniform, particularly throughout the general areas of the mall," he said. "We have had occasions where we didn't see officers."

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Dwane Tinsley, Lewis admitted that Peoples was one of his better workers. Lewis, who was responsible for recruiting officers to work security, said Peoples was dependable and hardworking.

Tinsley asked Bird and Lewis about statements they gave to Capt. Lex Williamson and Capt. Kevin Perdue, the Charleston officers investigating allegations of double dipping, in May 2007.

In the statements, Bird and Lewis said they didn't have problems with officers leaving the mall for 15 or 20 minutes if they had to run out and conduct some police business.

As a member of the warrants unit, Peoples had to leave the mall a lot to go and arrest people, Lewis said. He didn't remember telling Peoples that he didn't have to use his magnetic card to swipe out of the mall's time clock every time he left.

"When he did call me to say that he was going to the station and back, or somewhere else and back, I wouldn't tell him no," he said.

Lewis told the investigators in 2007 that he tried not to micromanage the officers because it was sometimes hard to get enough to work at the mall, which didn't pay very well.

"I don't want to alienate them," he said in his statement. "And if a guy goes and [leaves the mall] for a few minutes, I don't see it as a problem."

Earlier, Kanawha County assistant prosecutor Scott Reynolds called as witnesses Dave Dickens and Rita Wilson, who retired from the Charleston Police Department in 2001 as commander of the Information Services Division and Administrative Services bureau chief, respectively.

Dickens said he sometimes saw Peoples at the station working during his off hours when he would bring in a suspect he had arrested at the mall.

"There were several occasions on which I had to remind him to go off the mall clock and onto the city clock when he would make an arrest," Dickens said. His concern was not overlapping hours, but that Peoples would be covered by the city's policy when he was acting as a police officer, he said.

Dickens denied having a personal problem with Peoples, and said he did not remember telling officer Mark Fulks, who worked in the warrants unit with Peoples, to let Dickens know if he wanted to "get rid of" Peoples.

"I don't recall the words, but I may have discussed transferring Keith Peoples," Dickens said.

Dickens said he once disciplined Peoples for carrying a loaded shotgun through the records division office following an arrest on the East End in 2000 that was featured on the TV show "America's Most Wanted."

Wilson also recalled seeing Peoples at the station during times he was not scheduled to work. Knowing that he worked a security job at the mall, she would remind him to clock in with the city so that she could approve his overtime slips, she said.

Reynolds said Monday that Peoples worked 478 overlapping hours between 2000 and 2004.

The defense has maintained that the city's recordkeeping was riddled with errors. Tinsley also said that investigators were not interested in Peoples' explanations for some of the overlaps, such as court appearances, where officers are automatically awarded two hours of overtime even if they are only there for a few minutes.

In 2007, a Kanawha jury convicted former Charleston police Detective James L. "Chip" Nowling of felony obtaining by false pretenses and computer fraud. Later that year, three additional officers accepted plea deals on misdemeanor double dipping charges.

Peoples and the other officers all worked security jobs at the mall. Except for Nowling, who also worked security for a WesBanco branch on Charleston's West Side, no charges have been filed against any officers who worked security at other venues.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.