An observant fellow officer helped spark the investigation that led to Thursday’s indictment of two Bluffton police employees, including one sworn sergeant, on accusations of stealing a gun from the department.
Former civilian quartermaster Thomas Rauchfuss, 42, was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly taking a firearm that should have been submitted into the department’s evidence division, according to a release from the Bluffton Police Department. Sgt. Bonifacio Perez, 39, was charged with misconduct in office for allegedly aiding Rauchfuss in stealing the weapon.
Both offenses are misdemeanors punishable by up to 10 years in prison, according to Jeff Kidd, a spokesperson for the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office. He would not specify the number of weapons the men were accused of stealing, a detail also left ambiguous in their indictment documents.
The unnamed officer notified Chief of Police Joseph Babkiewicz on May 8 after seeing Rauchfuss failing to document a firearm that was surrendered by a resident, the department says. That informant was following the police force’s “Duty to Intervene” policy, which requires officers who observe their colleagues violating laws or department policies to report the actions to a higher-up.
Babkiewicz said he was “deeply saddened and disappointed” by the incident but noted that the department’s policies “are in place for this exact reason.”
A Beaufort County grand jury indicted both men on Thursday. Following a direct...
On Editorial Writing It is true that opinion columnists offer a personal point of view. However, this is only the start of what should be an industry standard for those professional opinion writer...