Chris Meyers
FORT WAYNE -- A Fort Wayne
police officer is accused of breaking into a foreclosed home and taking a chain
saw and gasoline cans from the property.
The officer was suspended and
demoted in February but will not receive other administrative penalties if
convicted, the city’s public safety director said.
Misdemeanor charges of criminal
trespass and criminal conversion, filed Friday against Scott A. Criswell, 50,
stem from an investigation that started in late 2013, according to a probable
cause affidavit.
In August, Criswell was one of
several Fort Wayne police officers who attended a gathering at another
officer’s house near the foreclosed property, the report said.
A woman who along with her
husband hosted the party told an Allen County detective that at some time
during the evening she, Criswell and another woman went to the foreclosed home
because Criswell was interested in buying it.
Once at the property, the three
found some gas cans inside an open outbuilding. One of the women said Criswell
placed the gas cans in the back of the ATV the group rode to the home, the
affidavit said.
As the three walked around the
house they found an unlocked, but chained, exterior basement door. One of the
women told police she kicked the door open after Criswell could not get the
chain off the door with a branch, according to the report.
The other woman told police the
three were shocked the kick actually opened the door.
After the three made it into
the home, Criswell went to an attached garage and returned with a chain saw in
a case.
The incident came to light
after it was reported internally in the Fort Wayne Police Department, said
Rusty York, Fort Wayne’s director of public safety, who was still city police
chief when the investigation started.
The affidavit also said a theft
report was made from the property, but the connection between the person who
reported the theft and the property was not provided.
“We contacted the Allen County
Police Department and they conducted a lengthy investigation,” York said.
He said the police department
gave Criswell a five-day suspension without pay in February as a result, and
demoted him from a sergeant detective position to a uniformed patrol officer.
York said no further
departmental penalties would be implemented, regardless of whether Criswell is
convicted.
