A Kentucky State Police trooper, retired KSP lieutenant colonel, and the Scott County coroner have been indicted on theft-related charges.
A Scott County Grand Jury returned indictments against the three on Thursday, following a probe by the state police Special Investigations Branch.
Master Trooper Mitch Harris, 45, was charged with two counts of second-degree forgery and two counts of theft by unlawful taking over $10,000. Harris has been on unpaid administrative leave since December.
In 2015, Harris was also caught charging overtime for a shift he didn’t work. He was suspended after that investigation, taken off the road and reassigned to KSP’s Supply Branch. Harris is currently accused of stealing rifles, shotguns and two trucks worth of ammo from the supply branch to which he was reassigned.
The forgery charges against Harris accuse him of covering up the transfer of rifles and shotguns belonging to KSP. According to the indictments, Harris turned the stolen goods over to former KSP Colonel Mike Crawford, 54, and Scott County Coroner, John Goble. Between the guns and 200 boxes of ammo, the total summed up to about $40,000.
Goble, 64, was charged with one count of receiving stolen property over $10,000, receiving a stolen firearm, abuse of public trust less than $10,000, trafficking in controlled substance and two counts of official misconduct. One of the official misconduct charges against Goble accuses him of using a vehicle owned by Scott County Government to transport moonshine. The second official misconduct charge says Goble used a county vehicle to transport donor eyes from the Kentucky Eye Bank to West Virginia for personal profit.
Crawford was charged in the indictment with receiving stolen property over $10,000 and receiving a stolen firearm.
A press release from state police headquarters in Frankfort said investigators uncovered evidence on Dec. 20 that state police ammunition was being misappropriated.
State police initially contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to request their assistance. The FBI declined to investigate, and an internal investigation was launched by the Special Investigations Branch.
(Headline photo: Master Trooper Mitch Harris)
Information for this story was provided by WAVE3.com and Kentucky Today
