This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

A small-town Utah police chief develops a bad habit, a small-town Texas police chief and her fellow cop partner had a side business slinging meth, and more. Let's get to it:

In Gunnison, Utah, the former Gunnison police chief was arrested on September 5 on multiple drug and related charges after he was caught having stolen drug evidence for his own use. Seth Tyler Hendrickson, 41, went down when the local K9 officer went to pick up "training up substances" for his dog, which included 28 grams each of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana, and found the container for the drugs was missing.

The officer recalled that Hendrickson had taken the drugs to show a youth group the dangers of drugs and realized he had not returned them. Hendrickson repeatedly refused to return the container, and when he finally did, it was short the 28 grams of heroin and some psilocybin stems. When officers searched his home, they found open evidence bags in his vehicle containing 45 grams of heroin, 58 grams of marijuana, and 59 grams of methamphetamine. They also found used syringes in his home, and he tested positive for opioids.

Hendrickson is charged with two counts of possession/use of heroin (class A misdemeanor), possession/use of methamphetamine (class A misdemeanor), possession/use of cocaine (class A misdemeanor), possession/use of marijuana (class B misdemeanor), possession/use of drug paraphernalia (class B misdemeanor), and official misconduct (class B misdemeanor).

In Columbus, Ohio, a former Columbus police officer pleaded guilty on September 1 to stealing and selling more than $100,000 worth of cocaine from crime scenes and evidence rooms. Joel Mefford, 35, was assigned to investigate drug crimes when he worked for the Columbus Police Department, but he and another officer were found to have stolen and trafficked cocaine at least thrice in 2020. He copped to two counts of possessing with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, one count of possessing with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and one count of money laundering.

In Athens, Texas, a former Payne Springs police officer was sentenced on August 15 to 20 years in federal prison for slinging meth. Jonathan Hutchison had pleaded guilty in April to manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance. Hutchison went down after police with a search warrant raided the home he shared with Payne Springs Police Chief April Meadows and found illicit drugs inside. Meadows has also pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and manufacturing or delivery of a controlled substance and awaits sentencing. Hutchison also got two years for tampering with an electronic monitoring device and another two years for possession of a controlled substance, but those sentences run concurrently with the 20-year distribution sentence.

In Montgomery, Alabama, a former state prison guard was sentenced Tuesday to six years in federal prison for smuggling methamphetamine into the Stanton Correctional Facility. Henry Guice Jr., 46, went down when a drug dog alerted on his vehicle in the parking lot of the prison and investigators found three bags of meth. Guice pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to distribute in a plea hearing in May. An inmate at the prison has been charged with conspiring with Guice to sell drugs and faces a February trial.