Associated Press
BEDFORD, Pa. (AP) - A suspended state police barracks commander and two friends were charged with stealing police gear - including a straitjacket - which authorities said the three intended to sell on an Internet auction site.
Sgt. James Murphy, 39, of Schellsburg, a 17-year veteran trooper, headed the barracks at Everett before he was suspended without pay in December. He faces a preliminary hearing Feb. 20, along with a Bedford couple, William Lee Crawford, 49, and his wife, Margaret H. Crawford, 47.
Police say the investigation has turned up $9,011 worth of state police property, including two radar guns, four riot helmets and a chart of traffic deaths.
The investigation began Dec. 5 when investigators learned of a state police straitjacket being sold on eBay.
After searching Murphy’s home and a house he rents to the Crawfords, police said they recovered various state police-issue items worth $5,572, including the straitjacket.
The straitjacket had been reported missing from the state police barracks in Lancaster in 1997 and Murphy had been the trooper assigned to investigate its whereabouts at that time, authorities said.
On Dec. 11, police searched a Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission building behind the Everett barracks and found $3,439 worth of other gear that authorities believe Murphy was storing until he could sell or find another use for them.
Murphy has been suspended without pay. He had commanded the Everett barracks for about a year.
Murphy was charged Tuesday with theft, receiving stolen property, unlawful use of a computer and criminal conspiracy. The Crawfords were charged with receiving stolen property, unlawful use of a computer and criminal conspiracy.
Thomas Dickey, an attorney representing Murphy and William Crawford, didn’t immediately return a call for comment Wednesday. Dickey told The Associated Press in December, after Murphy was suspended without pay, that both men came by the property legally.
The Crawfords have an unlisted telephone number. It was not immediately clear Wednesday if Margaret Crawford has her own attorney.
Bedford District Attorney Dwight Diehl said Murphy and Crawford told investigators they bought gear at yard sales or the Internet and then resold them on eBay.
But state police officials said police-issue equipment could be considered stolen even if the men got them by legitimate means.
“My understanding of it is, all of these items - especially the straitjacket - are state police-issued items,” Diehl said. “When a state police trooper retires, he has to turn everything back in - hat, holster, shirt, you name it.”