Posted on 02/03/2018 6:11:47 PM PST by markomalley
A Hagerstown police officer has been arrested on drug charges after police received a video of him admitting he stole opioids from a disabled resident while he was on duty.
Christopher Michael Barnett, a 15-year veteran of the Hagerstown Police Department, was taken into custody by Pennsylvania State Police Thursday evening at his home, according to Chief Victor Brito who held a press conference at noon Friday.
Barnett is facing a list of charges related to the theft of opiate painkillers from a disabled resident of an apartment building in Hagerstown.
Police say Barnett used a phony pretense to enter the apartment. While inside, he handled the bedridden resident’s pill bottles. When a caregiver noticed tablets were missing, he called police but Barnett was put on the phone.
Barnett allegedly hung up and hurried over to the apartment. This time, the resident recorded video of Barnett asking that they not report him and promising to give the drugs back.
When the chief was given the video, they moved quickly to make an arrest.
Criminal charges were filed after investigators confirmed the video with witnesses. He has been charged with possession and distribution of prescription controlled dangerous substances.
"When we received this information, we acted as quickly as we do in any criminal matter to address the issue," Brito said. "This will be treated the same as every case we handle on a regular basis, and he will be rightly afforded due process of the law."
Barnett has been a member of the Hagerstown Police since July 2002 and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 2012. He has been suspended without pay.
Charge him too with being a low-down snake.
Aw. Harsh. I’m sure he was just trying to prevent the disabled patient from a possible addiction.
What kind of a place is Hagerstown? We know about Baltimore.
Sarc, surely. Surely!
Wrong anywhere.
It is a redneck west Maryland city. I stayed in it a few months while travel ing back and forth to a job in Germantown, which I couldn’t afford to live in.
A friend who lives there says it’s getting worse. Large state prison used to include a bus ticket when prisoners were released. Now they don’t. Many cons stick around.
bad cops make life bad for citizens and worse for good cops
“Sarc, surely. Surely!”
Sarc is my middle name (not my first) and don’t call me Surely! ;-)
H-Town Ping
“bad cops make life bad for citizens and worse for good cops”
So why aren’t the good cops speaking out if their life is so bad?
Their silence puts them on the side of the bad cops.
Very few good cops. Lots of just cops.
ROPE
Bawlmer Lite.
Do not go downtown after dark and avoid ALL the “subsidized housing” areas.
The scum that get paroled from the local prisons don’t seem to be able to find their way back to their own cesspools so they make new ones, here.
Yeah, I’ve mentioned Htown cops before.
I was not exaggerating.
The guy is lucky he wasn’t thrown face down on the blistering hot hood of a cruiser and dry-humped by a grinning office, in front of his lover and friends.
/yeah Dave Long, I remember you
*officer
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