To shut out March 2025, the previous police chief of a southern Illinois city referred to as Wayne Metropolis pled responsible to 2 motorcycle-related costs in federal courtroom. However they might not be what you anticipate.
The defendant, Anson Fenton, was Wayne Metropolis’s police chief in 2022 and 2023. In response to the US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of Illinois, he was charged with two separate counts. The primary was a depend of “misapplication of property from federally funded applications,” whereas the second was “interstate transportation of stolen property.”
However though that tells you what the costs have been, that does not let you know what he pleaded responsible to really doing. That is what the courtroom paperwork on this case are for!
Dive in there, and you will study that Fenton was Wayne Metropolis’s police chief in 2022 and 2023, and that a part of his duties included “safeguarding property that Wayne Metropolis obtained from asset forfeiture proceedings.” We aren’t going to go deep into the problematic aspects of asset forfeiture that investigative journalists have been digging up for years right here, however you are about to see two counts of them spelled out on this case.
The Stipulation of Info goes on to notice that people charged with crimes in Wayne Metropolis have been typically topic to asset forfeiture proceedings, and that defendants in relevant circumstances typically agreed to relinquish each their titles and their possession claims as a part of these processes.
From there, as soon as Wayne Metropolis took possession of the forfeited property, it was supposed to carry on to it till the Wayne Metropolis Board of Trustees formally licensed them to promote it; and crucially, not earlier than. Moreover, Wayne Metropolis additionally obtained over $10,000 in federal funds throughout this time—and that timing is presumably why it is a federal case.
The primary depend that Fenton pleaded responsible to concerned his promoting two forfeited bikes: a 2017 Harley-Davidson Avenue Glide Particular and a forfeited 2000 Harley-Davidson Fats Boy. The cost states that the cash from the sale of those two bikes was used “for his personal private use,” and with out authorization from the Wayne Metropolis Board of Trustees.
The second depend includes a 2022 Suzuki Hayabusa that Fenton did not simply promote, however truly rode throughout state strains, all the best way to Alexandria, Virginia. It wasn’t a pleasure trip, nor a easy trade of motorbike for money on this case. No; as an alternative, it was a car commerce, the place Fenton traded the ‘Busa in query for a 1991 Ford Mustang which he then saved for himself.
In a press release relating to the responsible plea, US Lawyer Steven D. Weinhoeft mentioned, “The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace strongly helps our police, however we should take decisive motion when issues like this occur. By taking unauthorized possession of forfeited property for his private profit, the defendant used his place of belief as police chief to deceive the group he was sworn to guard.”
Whereas Fenton has now pleaded responsible to each counts enumerated above, sentencing will not come till the tip of July, 2025. At his sentencing listening to, he may face fines of as much as $250,000 for every of the 2 counts, in addition to as much as a 10-year jail sentence.
Trending Merchandise
