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Waco, TX
Rob Williams (Jail photo)
The former chief of a local campus police force was arrested on his birthday Friday after he was named in a sealed indictment that accuses him of pawning firearms from the department’s property room.
WACO (January 13, 2012)—Former Texas State Technical Police Chief Robert Ashley “Rob” Williams was arrested on his 43rd birthday Friday after he was named in a sealed indictment charging abuse of official capacity of $1,500 or more, but less than $20,000.
Williams was at the McLennan County Jail Friday afternoon.
Williams was fired in March 2011 after an internal investigation into the improper use of items stored in the department’s property room.
The indictment, which was unsealed late Friday afternoon, accuses Williams of pawning several firearms from the department’s property room including a 9-mm Glock pistol, two Smith and Wesson .357 magnum pistols, a Rossi .38 Special, and a Remington .45 caliber pistol.
The pawnshop transactions dated back to October 2009 and continued through March 2011, the indictment said.
In April 2011, the Texas Rangers confirmed they were investigating Williams.
An internal audit, meanwhile, revealed several problems within the TSTC department that the school said it was correcting.
“There has been a practice of converting serviceable evidence weapons to Departmental use. Appropriate legal procedures for evidence forfeitures were not always followed prior to this conversion,” the audit said.
“It appears Mr. Williams merely perpetuated this practice which began before his tenure as chief.” the audit said.
The audit also says the department did not perform its annual equipment inventory correctly, saying several documentation errors were noted.”
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International Association for Property and Evidence
“Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement”
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