Former Mounds Police Officers Charged With Pocketing Found Cash

Two former Mounds police officers have been charged in Creek County with one count of embezzlement each.

Chief Chad Long and Deputy Chief Jerry Grafton were the only paid officers on the town's police force when they were suspended in June.

Long and Grafton turned themselves in for arrest Wednesday, after warrants were issued for them on Tuesday.

According to court documents, a woman found a purse that contained drugs, drug paraphernalia and a bag containing bundles of 100-dollar bills outside the Mounds Dollar General in September of 2010.  

The woman, Diana Banks, took the purse home where she and her husband found more than $40,000 in cash inside.  She told investigators she attempted to contact Long on the phone via a mutual acquaintance, then decided to take the purse to the Mounds Police Department.

While en route, Long called her and told her to take the purse to the police department and that he would meet her there, according to prosecutors.

Banks said Grafton met her at the department and she turned the purse over to him.  He placed the purse into a locker which he locked, then had Banks complete a written statement about the purse.

When Grafton turned the money over to the Creek County District Attorney's Office on November 2, 2010, there was only $17,100, according to prosecutors.

Investigators questioned Grafton on June 7, 2012, and he said he and fellow defendant Chad Long had each taken $5,000 from the purse, according to the affidavit filed in Creek County Court.

6/6/2012 Related Story: Mounds Residents React to Police Department Suspension

Currently Bob Randolph is serving the city as Interim Police Chief.  Creek County Sheriff's deputies had been patrolling the town.