By Shawn McGrath
August 29, 2008 11:34 pm
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ELWOOD — An Elwood officer has been charged with three felony counts in connection with an investigation into missing evidence at the Elwood Police Department.
Officer Shaun A. “Andy” Murray, 28, Elwood, was charged with official misconduct, theft and possession of a controlled substance. All of the charges are Class D felonies punishable by six months to three years behind bars if convicted.
Indiana State Police Detective Sgt. Keith O’Donnell arrested Murray at about 4:45 p.m. Friday in Anderson. He was released about an hour later after posting 10 percent of his $5,000 bond.
Murray has been an Elwood police officer for about two years, Mayor Merrill Taylor said. Murray was placed on paid administrative leave with the department on Aug. 23, but that could change after an expected Board of Public Works and Safety meeting is held next week. Taylor said Murray’s annual salary wasn’t immediately known.
“It’s just a bad situation,” the mayor said. “It’s just too bad it had to happen.”
O’Donnell said Murray, who has been cooperating in the investigation, admitted to taking prescription pain pills from the department’s evidence room over the past year for personal use.
O’Donnell said investigators received information in July that Murray had become addicted to prescription painkillers, but the investigation was formally sparked Saturday, when Elwood Lt. Jason Brizendine noticed evidence missing.
The detective said Brizendine had placed 62 confiscated hydrocodone pills into a temporary evidence storage locker on Thursday, Aug. 21. When Brizendine returned to properly package the evidence for placement in the evidence room on Saturday, Aug. 23, he noticed 10 pills missing, O’Donnell said.
Murray, who primarily serves as patrol officer, was also the department’s evidence room officer. Only he and Brizendine had keys to the temporary storage locker where the lieutenant placed the confiscated drugs, O’Donnell said. On Aug. 23, Elwood police interviewed Murray at an Anderson residence, and he was placed on leave and voluntarily entered rehabilitation.
“This was real recent,” O’Donnell said. “This was a fluid investigation.
“Without a doubt, (Murray has) been real helpful in our investigation, wanting to clear up any (concerns) in that evidentiary room.”
All of the evidence that was missing involved only prescription pain medications, the detective said. O’Donnell said now the task would be to determine how many pills Murray allegedly took and how many ongoing and closed cases — including ones that had ended in conviction — had been compromised. He said he would be meeting in Elwood on Tuesday with Madison County Prosecutor Thomas Broderick, the commander of the ISP’s lab division, and ISP’s investigative commander for central Indiana to determine how to proceed with the case.
“We won’t know how much (Murray allegedly took) until we do an inventory,” O’Donnell said. “(The inventory) could be monumental, or we could be able to narrow down the scope.
“Andy doesn’t know how many opiates he may have taken.”
O’Donnell said Murray also didn’t know how frequently he stole the drugs, only that it had been going on for about a year. The detective said Murray had been the department’s evidence officer for at least that long.
To determine how many pills were taken, O’Donnell said, investigators will either pull case reports and compare them to evidentiary chain-of-custody lists and the actual evidence itself. Or, he said, they’ll simply compare the chain of custody lists to the evidence. The investigation could be lengthy, depending on how investigators proceed.
“This could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months for us to complete,” O’Donnell said. “It’s labor intense.”
Despite the possession of a controlled substance charge, O’Donnell said no prescription drugs were found at Murray’s residence. Murray previously served as an officer with the Alexandria Police Department.
O’Donnell said investigators would also try to determine if Murray kept and used any drugs he himself might have seized while working as a patrol officer. He said they expected to reinterview Murray.
According to jail records, Murray lives in Elwood, but O’Donnell said he had been staying in Anderson. Murray did not return a phone message seeking comment Friday.
Murray has not yet made an initial court appearance. It wasn’t immediately known if he had an attorney or when he would be arraigned on the charges.
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What’s next?
Indiana State Police Detective Sgt. Keith O’Donnell says he will be meeting on Tuesday with Madison County Prosecutor Thomas Broderick, along with other ISP officials, to determine how to proceed in the investigation of Elwood Police Elwood officer arrested
Andy Murray charged with three felony counts
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