Douglas Walker
MUNCIE — A former Muncie police
officer on Friday formally became an accused thief.
George Edward Hopper, 40, is
accused of embezzling $26,576 when he was treasurer of the local Fraternal
Order of Police between 2010 and 2013.
Hopper resigned from his job
with the Muncie Police Department in March 2013, after FOP officials launched
an investigation into missing lodge funds.
“About four months ago, we
started noticing things,” then-FOP President Jay Turner told The Star Press
last year. “Bills were not being paid.”
An affidavit accompanying the
theft charge — filed Friday in Delaware Circuit Court 1 by Prosecutor Jeffrey
Arnold — alleges that FOP members became aware of the lodge’s financial
problems in January 2013.
A few weeks later, Hopper did
not attend a lodge meeting to discuss the situation. Eight days later, he was
officially removed as FOP treasurer.
On April 4, 2013, Indiana State
Police were asked to investigate “a possible theft of funds from the FOP by treasurer
George Hopper,” the affidavit said.
Court documents reflect that
Hopper previously repaid $12,000, and Arnold said the former officer paid an
additional $14,000 in restitution on Friday.
Arnold said Hopper was “very
cooperative” with the ISP probe that led to the filing of Friday’s charge.
“He helped determine the total
loss (to the FOP), which we would have been unable to do,” he said.
According to the affidavit, the
former officer met with ISP officers in March, reviewed a recently completed
audit conducted by an accounting firm, and “admitted that he had taken money
from the FOP without lodge permission, and had lost track of how much he had
actually taken.”
Hopper surrendered at the
Delaware County jail on Friday afternoon, was processed, then released after
posting a $5,000 bond.
“He was treated like anyone
else,” Arnold said.
Hopper joined the Muncie Police
Department in May 1998 and was a city officer for two months short of 15 years.
