KANSAS CITY, Kan. --
Federal indictments unsealed Monday accuse three Kansas City, Kan., police officers of stealing from a woman while executing a search warrant.
Jeffrey M. Bell, Darryl M. Forrest and Dustin Sillings are accused in the case. Bell and Forrest are charged with conspiracy, deprivation of rights and theft. Sillings is charged with conspiracy and theft. All three are members of the police department's Selective Crime Occurrence Reduction Enforcement Unit (SCORE).
All three pleaded not guilty to the charges.
According to court documents, the officers are accused of stealing a PlayStation Portable and a Flip camcorder from a home on Haskell Avenue while executing a search warrant on July 7.
During a Jan. 4 FBI sting operation in the 700 block of Everett Avenue, several items including PlayStation video games, a Nintendo DS game player, Apple iPod Touch and $700 in cash were taken.
In early January, Police Chief Rick Armstrong announced that several members of SCORE were arrested in connection with an investigation into alleged misconduct.
Armstrong said that the investigation began when a citizen filed a complaint, and he reached out to the FBI for help.
United States Attorney Barry Grissom said the officers' alleged victims may have a hard time coming forward. "We believe that these folks were fearful of coming forward because this was the police allegedly doing these crimes," Grissom said.
Kansas City, Kan., Mayor Joe Reardon released the following statement:
“This incident is disappointing, but I have the highest confidence in Police Chief Rick Armstrong and his leadership of the KCK Police Department. I applaud his decision to launch the internal investigation which led to these indictments.
My expectation is that we continue to have a police department that is responsible to its citizens and fights crime with the utmost integrity. We have achieved great results in fighting crime.
I also want to thank the U.S. Attorney and the FBI for their cooperation and assistance.”
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