The mayor of a city in Alabama has placed its entire police department on administrative leave, a day after officials announced that a grand jury had recommended the small department be abolished, saying it had “operated as more of a criminal enterprise than a law enforcement agency” and is “an ongoing threat to public safety.”
Jim Sawyer, the mayor of Hanceville, a city of about 3,200 roughly 45 miles north of Birmingham, said in a statement Thursday evening that after an “effective meeting” with Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry, all employees of the police department will be placed on administrative leave effective 5 p.m. Thursday.
Sawyer said all 911 and emergency calls will be routed directly to the sheriff’s office, which will provide all law enforcement services to the city of Hanceville.
At a news conference Wednesday, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker announced that a grand jury had indicted Hanceville Police Chief Jason Shane Marlin and four other officers, as well as one of the officers’ wives, on various charges, which include tampering with evidence, as part of an extensive corruption investigation.
The police department employed only eight officers as of August, when Marlin was sworn in as chief, according to The Cullman Times. A woman who answered the police department’s dispatch line earlier Thursday said there was no one available to speak to a reporter about its size and that the department had no comment about anything. A message left at the chief’s work voicemail was not immediately returned.
“This is a sad day for law enforcement, but at the same time, it is a good day for the rule of law,” Crocker said at the start of Wednesday’s news conference, where he was joined by Gentry.
Crocker read nine findings from the grand jury — including that departmental negligence played a role in the 2024 overdose death of a Hanceville 911 dispatcher who was found dead at work.
The grand jury did not charge the officers in connection with the death of the dispatcher, Christopher Michael Willingham, 49, whose body was found in his office in August and ruled an accidental overdose from the “combined toxic effects of fentanyl” and other drugs by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.
But the grand jury said his death was “the direct result” of the police department’s “negligence, lack of procedure, general incompetence and disregard for human life,” Crocker said.
The revelations came after the Alabama State Bureau of Investigations probed Willingham’s death.
The grand jury also said the department had failed to account for, preserve and maintain evidence, and in doing so, had failed crime victims and the public at large, Crocker said, adding that some of the evidence was unusable. Crocker said any pending cases will go through a review process.
The grand jury said the department “has recently operated as more of a criminal enterprise than a law enforcement agency,” that it “is a particular and ongoing threat to public safety” and that the indicted officers should be suspended by the Alabama Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission. Because of what the grand jury described as “a rampant culture of corruption,” the grand jury recommended that another agency be tasked with policing the city of Hanceville.
Crocker said one of the most concerning things was that the police department’s evidence room was not secure.
“Criminal evidence must be secured in order to have that evidence for prosecution and to ensure due process,” he said. “This evidence room was anything but secure.”
He showed photos of a hole in the wall of the evidence room and a green broomstick that he said was used to “jimmy open” the door. Crocker said the grand jury had watched “a lot of videos” from security camera footage that showed the evidence room was routinely accessed by individuals who were not authorized to do so.
The grand jury toured the Hanceville jail on Feb. 12 and were left with no confidence in the police department’s ability to maintain a jail or to meet the basic health and safety needs of jail personnel or inmates, Crocker said.
Sawyer, the mayor, said in a statement Wednesday that the city would fully cooperate with all investigations into the police department. Sawyer also said the city council will consider the grand jury’s recommendations “and act swiftly and decisively to address the problems” within it.
Sawyer also said he had spoken with the district attorney and agreed that there should be an audit of the contents of the evidence room. Sawyer said in the statement that he could not comment further, citing the ongoing investigations.
Messages left for Sawyer at his office and personal numbers were not immediately returned.
Gentry, who also attended Wednesday’s news conference, said all of the defendants had been released on bond.
The other officers who were indicted are Cody Alan Kelso, 33; Jason Scott Wilbanks, 37; William Andrew Shelnutt, 39; Eric Michael Kelso, 44; and his wife, Donna Reid Kelso, 63.
Cody Alan Kelso, Wilbanks, Shelnutt and Marlin were all charged with tampering with physical evidence.
Marlin, the chief, is also charged with two felony counts of failing to report ethics crimes, which, according to his indictment, involved Cody Alan Kelso and Wilbanks.
Donna Kelso is accused of unlawfully distributing anabolic steroids to Wilbanks and Cody Alan Kelso, according to the indictments obtained by NBC News. She and her husband are charged with unlawful distribution of a controlled substance and criminal conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime.
Eric and Donna Kelso declined to comment Thursday. Their attorney, Jason Knight, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Phone numbers listed for Marlin, 51, and Wilbanks appear to have been disconnected. Shelnutt and Cody Alan Kelso did not return requests for comment. Cody Alan Kelso’s attorney, John C. Robbins, said his client resigned before he was indicted and that he looks forward to defending him. Robbins also said Cody Alan Kelso is not related to Eric and Donna Kelso.
“Right now, I’m looking forward to seeing what evidence that the prosecution believes that they have to support these allegations,” Robbins said. “It’s going to be interesting.”
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