Timothy Butler, the former police chief in Elizabeth Borough, was sentenced Tuesday to probation for stealing heroin from police evidence for his own use.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Horan gave him four years of probation, the first three months of which he’ll serve on home detention.
Butler, 46, had pleaded guilty in December to a count of theft of government property following an investigation by the FBI.
The bureau was involved because the heroin belonged to the FBI after having been seized in two federal drug investigations.
Butler was already prosecuted in state court for the stealing. He got probation in that case, too.
Federal prosecutors charged him with stealing heroin from June 2017 until December 2018 and using it for himself.
Butler had been part of an FBI task force. Police discovered nearly 10,000 missing and empty stamp bags of heroin and fentanyl from the Elizabeth department’s property room. Butler admitted to another officer that he had become addicted to heroin after taking Vicodin for pain.
Police found empty stamp bags in a trash can in his office and others lying on his desk.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
