A Little Rock police officer who quit the force after being confronted with video that showed him stealing a purse while off duty has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft and repaid the victim $1,650.
Originally charged with felony theft, Marcus Lavelle Getter, 43, was sentenced by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Leon Johnson to one year on probation, conditioned on immediate restitution, and fined $500, court filings show. He had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday.
Little Rock police announced Getter's arrest in March. Court records show he pleaded guilty Nov. 3, about 1½ weeks short of the anniversary of the November 2020 theft from Bar Louie restaurant at 11525 Cantrell Road.
According to police reports, Charlotte West, 63, of Little Rock reported that she'd left her purse, containing $1,650 in a white envelope, money from a tenant's monthly rent, at the restaurant.
As soon as she realized what she'd done, West called restaurant manager Nicole Collins, 42, and went back to the eatery, but the purse was gone. West had left the purse hanging on the back of a chair, and store security video showed a man move to sit in the same chair after West left.
According to the report, the man can be seen putting the purse on the counter then putting it in his lap beneath the bar, where he removes a white envelope from the purse, looks in the envelope and then puts the envelope back in the purse. The man then leaves with the purse but returns to the restaurant a short time later empty-handed. Collins recognized the man as a regular customer but did not know his name.
The customer would not be identified for another 1½ weeks until he returned to the restaurant, and Collins called 911 to report the man had returned. Two officers were sent to the restaurant to identify the man, with one of them recognizing him as Getter.
About a month later, in December, Getter was called in for questioning. After being read his rights, Getter said he took the purse out of the restaurant because he thought he could find its owner outside. He said he thought the purse belonged to one of two women who had just left.
Getter said when he couldn't find the women he put it in his car to keep it safe until he could find the owner and then forgot about it. Getter said when he looked into the purse a couple of days later, it was empty, no identification or even cosmetics. He still had the purse in his car when he met with investigators.
Getter stated that he called Bar Louie two days later and told a worker about how he discovered the purse and left his contact information. Told about the security video, Getter said he knew there were cameras in the restaurant but denied going through the purse at the restaurant or seeing a white envelope inside.
Investigators could not find any worker at the restaurant to confirm Getter's account, and Collins, the Bar Louie manager, said the theft had become so notorious that if anyone had called in about finding the purse she was certain she'd have been told about it.