Former Police Chief Anthony Spivey is now facing additional charges in the ongoing investigation into missing evidence at the Chadbourn Police Department.
Warrants show that Spivey was charged with obstruction of justice, failure to discharge duty as a law enforcement officer, forgery, altering evidence, embezzlement of state property, two counts of private use of a government vehicle, and obtaining property by false pretenses. He was already in jailed under $750,000 secured bond on charges of drug trafficking and larceny.
Spivey was suspended in March, then arrested in April after a review of the Chadbourn Police evidence locker. From August 2018 until March, the chief is alleged to have taken cash and narcotics for his own use, as well as disposing of at least three firearms without the authority to do so. District Attorney Jon David asked the town to suspend Spivey, and called in the State Bureau of Investigation to examine records and property being held for pending cases. More than 18 felony charges have been dismissed thus far due to missing or altered evidence.
David said during Spivey’s first appearance that the chief was funding his own drug habit, not selling the seized narcotics. The District attorney also said that SBI agents followed Spivey as he went to multiple doctors on the same day, using altered prescriptions for painkillers. The DA’s office had made multiple requests for the CPD to set up an account with the state crime lab for processing evidence, but those requests were ignored, according to David.
The latest warrants allege that Spivey sold a Palmetto Arms AR-15 rifle that was seized as evidence to Donald Ray Causey Jr. in South Carolina. Spivey then allegedly sold a CPD issued Beretta handgun to Causey. Warrants state that Spivey used a truck owned by the Police Department to deliver the weapons to Causey. He allegedly received $700 for the rifle. A price for the handgun was not listed on the warrant.
The warrants also show that Spivey embezzled an additional $1,247 in funds that were in the evidence room. He was already charged with stealing more than $35,000 in cash, drugs and firearms, including the Beretta and the AR-15.
