Practically 60 felony circumstances shall be dropped in a small Alabama city as a result of they have been compromised by what a grand jury referred to as a “rampant culture of corruption” within the native police division, in accordance with a press release on Wednesday.
The grand jury decided that 58 felony felony circumstances had been tainted by corruption within the Hanceville Police Division in northern Alabama, after 4 officers and the police chief have been indicted on a wide range of fees associated to mishandling or eradicating proof from the division’s proof room.
A Hanceville resident offers an emotional testimony about whether or not the native police division needs to be disbanded, in Hanceville, Ala., Feb. 27, 2025.
Safiyah Riddle / AP
The indictment included a advice that the division be “immediately abolished.”
The case roiled the city of roughly 3,200 individuals about 45 miles north of Birmingham.
Cullman County District Legal professional Champ Crocker stated that even one compromised case “is too many” however that “the Grand Jury had no other recourse,” in a press release on Wednesday evening. He added that a lot of the circumstances have been drug-related and only some have been private crimes with victims.
The 58 tossed circumstances have been chosen based mostly on an audit carried out by the Alabama State Bureau of Investigations.
The audit discovered that just about 40% of all 650 proof luggage and nearly a 3rd of all firearms weren’t documented earlier than being saved within the proof room. There was additionally a wide selection of proof that gave the impression to be lacking, together with firearms, money and illicit medication.
Hanceville Mayor Jimmy Sawyer positioned the entire division on depart in February, after which following weeks of polarized debate, introduced in March that the division could be disbanded and rebuilt from scratch.
Extra from CBS Information
