By Peggy Matthews, Clarion Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi)
The state auditor is investigating allegations of missing drugs, guns and cash at the Canton Police Department, officials confirmed Monday.
“This is an investigation of some serious allegations ... and it does not end at the evidence room,” interim Canton Police Chief Vicki McNeill said.
The allegations are of missing property when Luke Gordon was chief, McNeill said. Gordon left in January to become the Madison County emergency management director.
McNeill briefed the Canton Board of Aldermen on preliminary findings.
“All I can tell you is there are thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars worth of guns, drugs and money gone,” said Alderman Kenny Wayne Jones. “I was really dumfounded.”
Gordon, chief for a little less than five years, said he’d heard there was an audit under way.
“I wasn’t (directly) over the evidence room and really don’t have a comment. To my knowledge, nothing came up missing as long as I was there,” Gordon said.
Mayor Fred Esco said he asked state auditors about a month ago to investigate, after receiving statements from people who suspected evidence had been stolen. “My concern was to make sure everything was accounted for. If not, we’ll have to deal with it from a legal perspective,” Esco said.
An official with the auditor’s office would not comment.
Among the items missing, Jones said, is a storage locker belonging to McNeill. “She had a locker with weapons in it, and the whole locker is missing,” he said.
Maj. Bobby Sharp oversees the evidence room, but Gordon said at least four people had keys to the room, including himself and Sharp.
The mainframe for the Police Department’s computer system and Sharp’s office both are in the evidence room, Gordon said. He said he was unaware anyone other than he and Sharp had keys until he left to take the county job.
“They also got evidence stored in old jail cells. It’s less than desirable to have working conditions like that,” Gordon said.
Gordon said he had begged city officials for more space.
McNeill said she recently changed the locks and gave the only key to Sharp, meaning she doesn’t have access.
Sharp did not return a phone call seeking comment. Both Sharp and McNeill have applied to become chief.