Former sheriff’s employee arrested after Sedgwick County evidence goes missing

A former supervisor at the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office has been arrested on 19 counts related to roughly $145,000, guns and drugs being stolen from property and evidence at the office, officials said.

Robert D. White, 53, of Park City, was arrested Friday on suspicion of destroying, tampering or concealing felony evidence, eight counts of distributing opiates, opium or stimulants with six of those being under 100 grams, distributing marijuana under 25 grams, distributing hallucinogenics between 100 and 1,000 doses, six counts of theft with three having a value under $1,500 and two counts of distributing opiates, according to jail records.

White started at the jail in 2005 and moved to property and evidence, where he was a supervisor, in 2012.

A former property and evidence technician, Marc Gordon, will be charged with felony official misconduct, Lt. Tim Myers said in a news release. He was initially suspended for not following proper procedures, according to the sheriff’s office,

“We do not anticipate any other arrests in connection to the investigation at Property and Evidence,” Myers said in the release.

Sheriff Jeff Easter announced last month that two employees were no longer with the sheriff’s office while the office audited more than 50,000 items in property and evidence.

The missing evidence caused the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office to dismiss about 30 drug cases, with about 40 more under review for possible dismissal.

The cases dropped are lower-level drug cases. The Sheriff’s Office prioritized evidence in larger, pending cases to make sure the evidence still exists, District Attorney Marc Bennett said.

Easter said in May the audits were ongoing but, so far, had turned up missing money and “numerous amounts of drugs and seven guns and power tools.” Easter said one gun has since been recovered after the serial number showed up at a pawn shop.

The missing items covered cases over several years. The audit and investigation started after an employee noticed the storage area in disarray on Jan. 24.

This story was originally published June 27, 2020 at 1:17 PM.