IAPE Evidence Blog

Mont­gomery County Courier
BYLINE: Vanesa Brashier
Link to Article

Lib­erty County, OH

A for­mer Cleve­land police offi­cer and cur­rent Lib­erty County deputy sher­iff is report­edly at the cen­ter of an inves­ti­ga­tion being con­ducted by the Bureau of Alco­hol, Tobacco and Firearms in con­junc­tion with the East­ern Dis­trict of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Beaumont.

Sources close to the inves­ti­ga­tion say that ATF offi­cers have con­ducted searches of the deputy sheriff’s home and office, and at a gun range in Hum­ble that has ties to him.

Chief Deputy Jim Cooper said the Sheriff’s Office does not have an offi­cial state­ment to release at this time.

How­ever, Cooper said, “What­ever inves­ti­ga­tion is going on, we are not aware of it.”

When asked whether the offi­cer had been sus­pended while the inves­ti­ga­tion is ongo­ing, Cooper said, “We haven’t received word from any­one to lead us to believe that we need to take him off duty.”

The ATF’s inves­ti­ga­tion is said to be based on miss­ing firearms from the evi­dence room at the Cleve­land Police Depart­ment. The guns are believed to have been stolen from the evi­dence room over the past cou­ple of years or more. At that time, the deputy sher­iff was work­ing for the Cleve­land Police Depart­ment and was in charge of the evi­dence room.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org