Court Officer Accused of Abuse

In this case, it isn’t drug abuse, but abuse of authority. The District Attorney General who oversees prosecutions in five Tennessee Counties has been accused of using confiscated items for his own purposes.

The lawyer involved is DA Hansel McCadams and the charges come from the State Comptroller’s Office. This State agency is empowered to investigate assets of the State, including items taken when police server warrants and make arrests. After the items are seized, they then go into the system and may be used as evidence or simply confiscated to become property of the State itself.

The Comptroller’s Office report cites sloppy bookkeeping that allowed some items to simply “disappear” into the system. This failure to keep proper records meant that the DA had access to, and apparently misused, a BMW, a Harley motorcycle, four-wheeler and other goods as his own. Along with this, the DA is also accused of allowing the Drug Task Force helicopter to be used for unofficial purposes, including transporting important people to football games.

Others mentioned include Henry County Sheriff Belew and unnamed staff. One administrative assistant even took drugs and handguns from less-than-secure storage for her own use.

Perhaps the most outrageous example of lax security is when a group of jail trustees was allowed access to seized cocaine. The men smoked crack cocaine and marijuana while at the Drug Task Force headquarters and are accused of stealing cash and equipment as well.

What a mess! The expectation is that staff involved will lose their jobs. What formal criminal charges will be brought remain to be seen. However, stealing is stealing. The excuse of bad bookkeeping doesn’t explain how that motorcycle ended up in the garage or how tax dollars were spent ferrying people to football games.