(There are probably other crimes that will never be revealed to the public but the most outstanding crime was that the PD and 'multiple others' had unfettered access to the drugs in the unsecured evidence room.)
An Alabama grand jury has recommended that a city's police department be "immediately abolished," finding there is a "rampant culture of corruption," officials said Wednesday while announcing the indictment of five of the agency's officers, including its police chief.
Five Hanceville police officers were arrested and charged amid a probe into the department, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said. The spouse of one of the officers was also charged, he said.
Crocker provided limited details on the case. Though the investigation encompassed the department's evidence room and the death of a Hanceville dispatcher, 49-year-old Christopher Michael Willingham, who was found dead from a toxic drug combination at work, officials said.
The Cullman County grand jury found that the Hanceville Police Department has "failed to account for, preserve and maintain evidence and in doing so has failed crime victims and the public at large," making the evidence "unusable," Crocker said.
The grand jury further found that Willingham's death was "the direct result of the Hanceville Police Department's negligence, lack of procedure, general incompetence and disregard for human life," Crocker said.
None of the defendants were charged in Willingham's death, Crocker said. Though the "unfettered access that a lot of people had" to the evidence room is the basis of the grand jury's finding regarding the dispatcher's death, Crocker said.
"One of the most concerning things that we discovered in this process is that the Hanceville Police Department's evidence room was not secured," Crocker said.
Crocker said that Willingham was given access, "like a lot of other people," to the evidence room, including on his last day at work. The dispatcher died on Aug. 23, 2024, with the cause of death determined to be the "combined toxic effects of fentanyl, gabapentin, diazepam, amphetamine, carisoprodol and methocarbamol," and the manner of death an accident, according to the state medical examiner's autopsy report.
When asked if Willingham may have been exposed to fentanyl that was not kept in a secure place, Crocker said, "Nothing was secure about the evidence room. And when Mr. Willingham was discovered, there was evidence in his office."
The rest of the story is here:
All of them look liked they never graduated fourth grade... A clear case of a rural county on the border of the Bankhead National Forest. That is where they should have filmed Deliverance. Nice place to visit during the day, but be out of there past sundown... Backwoods hillbilly doesn't even come close to describing those from that area. Can you squeal?
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