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Ex-NC Police Chief Accused Of Stealing Evidence

Former Chadbourn, North Carolina, police chief William Anthony Spivey was taken into custody Monday and charged with 73 offenses, including 31 counts each of stealing or destroying evidence and embezzlement by a public official. Chadbourn is in Columbus County in the far southeastern part of the state.
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Former Chadbourn, North Carolina, police chief William Anthony Spivey was taken into custody Monday and charged with 73 offenses, including 31 counts each of stealing or destroying evidence and embezzlement by a public official. Chadbourn is in Columbus County in the far southeastern part of the state.

A former North Carolina police chief who resigned nearly two weeks ago amid an investigation into missing evidence is accused of taking a variety of narcotics, thousands of dollars in cash and firearms from the evidence locker, authorities said.

Former Chadbourn police chief William Anthony Spivey, 35, was taken into custody Monday by the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and charged with 73 offenses, including 31 counts each of stealing or destroying evidence and embezzlement by a public official, news outlets reported. Spivey is also charged with trafficking opium or heroin and three counts of trafficking by fraudulent or forging prescriptions.

Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene said Spivey is jailed under a $665,000 bond, but he will be moved to another facility for his protection. Spivey was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday, and it's not known if he has an attorney.

Spivey was placed on paid administrative leave March 5 after District Attorney Jon David recommended that the town suspend him due to issues with the police department’s evidence locker.

In a letter sent to Interim Town Manager Jerome Chestnut on March 4, David said the town’s police department had “neglected to send any narcotics for chemical analysis to the State Crime Lab for a substantial period of time.” Chadbourn Mayor Phillip Britt announced Spivey's resignation April 6. It was effective immediately.

Among the items reported missing from the evidence room were more than $32,000 in cash, two handguns and a rifle, 367 doses of Xanax and varying amounts of hydrocodone, Oxycontin and methadone.

Arrest warrants indicate the offenses occurred between August 2018 and March 2021 and said the stolen evidence was relevant to criminal cases.

In addition, Spivey is accused of of providing a false police report to a family nurse practitioner on May 4, 2020, in which he claimed that a 90-count oxycodone prescription that he had filled five days prior had been stolen. Spivey then obtained a new, 75-count prescription of oxycodone, according to warrants.

Warrants also allege that in 2017, Spivey fraudulently obtained a prescription of oxycodone by withholding information from a medical physician that he had previously had a prescription filled by another practitioner.

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