Ex-Jacksonville officer accused of swiping pills

Court records show a former Jacksonville police sergeant is accused of illegally taking prescription pills submitted to the department's evidence room.

The former sergeant, 39-year-old Christopher Schultz, was taken into custody last week, according to court documents. He did not appear on the Pulaski County jail's inmate roster Tuesday afternoon.

A warrant in his name was printed earlier this month and listed 10 felony counts, with half of those counts related to drug possession, the records show.

In an interview with authorities, Schultz said he would remove the "contents of the evidence packages, hydrocodone, and replace it with other drugs," according to an affidavit. The former Jacksonville sergeant said he would use the drug for "pain in his back," according to the court document.

"The pain in his back was the result of an injury that occurred while on duty," according to the affidavit.

Jacksonville police spokesman April Kiser on Tuesday confirmed that Schultz is no longer with the department. She did not say when his employment with the department ended.

Arkansas State Police received a request from Jacksonville police in November 2016 to investigate the "theft of narcotics" from the local department's evidence room, the affidavit says.

Jacksonville police Sgt. James Brady said he "became suspicious" of Schultz's interaction with the evidence room, and reported noticing him at the room multiple times.

Brady said he asked a property room technician why Schultz was in the evidence room, and the civilian employee reported that Schultz was returning evidence after checking it out, the affidavit says.

"Brady stated the date and time this took place, a late Friday afternoon, was odd because court proceedings occur at earlier hours," according to the court documents.

Later, the property room technician reported to Brady that Schultz, in the past, had contacted him to check out multiple cases, according to the affidavit.

Brady said he checked the records management system and found Schultz "was not associated with any of the cases," the document says.

He then informed Lt. Thomas Mayberry, who told the property room technician to "print out" all evidence Schultz had checked out, the affidavit said.

The court documents said Mayberry and the technician examined the packages for tampering signs, and the lieutenant "identified approximately 7 packages that had been tampered with."

The affidavit says Mayberry said some packages were replaced with other drugs, and "some of the contents of the packages were missing."

In one instance, one case was supposed to have 58 hydrocodone pills, but when examined, the package had 22 acetaminophen pills and 27 and a half hydrocodone pills, the affidavit says.

In that same case, an officer collected the evidence on March 12, 2016, then Schultz checked the evidence out on June 8, 2016, at 11:11 a.m., the affidavit says. Schultz then returned the evidence hours later at 3:55 p.m. and the listed reason for the check out was "for court," the court documents said.

"Mayberry also provided subpoenas for Schultz. He did not have a subpoena for this particular court case," the affidavit says.

Mayberry gave a written statement that included "detailed examples of this" occurring multiple times, the court document said.

During an interview, Schultz said he took evidence "that was not associated" with him and would check a records management system to find which cases were associated with narcotics, the affidavit says.

"Schultz stated he is remorseful about taking the evidence and hates that he disgraced the badge," the affidavit says.

Between April 2016 to November 2016, Schultz signed evidence out for 61 cases, the document said.

The affidavit included a list of various cases, detailing the evidence that was submitted and the evidence remaining after Schultz checked it back in.

In one case, 80 hydrocodone pills were submitted and 24 methocarbamol pills were in the package as a replacement, according to the court document. In another, 9 acetaminophen pills were in the package, as a replacement, after 10 hydrocodone pills were submitted, the court record shows.

Bill Sadler, an Arkansas State Police spokesman, said the agency has an open file related to Schultz. He did not comment on the specifics of the file.

NW News on 03/22/2018

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