A former Foster Township police officer was charged Thursday
with two counts of theft after more than a year of investigation,
which ultimately included the use of DNA evidence.
The DNA evidence was recovered from a latex glove Todd McClain
claimed to have been wearing while getting fingerprints from an
individual. The gloves were sent to Erie Regional Laboratory for
DNA analysis, states a criminal complaint filed by the Pennsylvania
State Police.
McClain, 32, of Oxford St., has been charged with two counts of
theft by unlawful taking or disposition, continues the
complaint.
At 11 a.m. March 9, 2006, Foster Twp. Police Chief Jeff Wolbert
discovered approximately $260 in cash missing from his office at
the Foster Township Police Station, according to the complaint.
The report stated that upon the discovery, Chief Wolbert
contacted Officer Thomas Munn of the Foster Township Police, who
responded to the scene and found an additional $770 in cash,
belonging to the McKean County Drug Task Force, missing from a file
cabinet located in the police station.
That day, Officer Munn contacted McKean County Detective Gerald
Okerlund, who also served as the Drug Task Force Coordinator,
concerning the theft of the money, the report said.
Detective Okerlund began a preliminary investigation that
determined that the money had been removed sometime between 2 a.m.
March 2, 2006, and 11 a.m. March 9, 2006, with no sign of forced
entry to the police station or the chief’s office, according to the
affidavit.
On March 17, 2006, the Kane-based state police were called in to
handle the investigation, the complaint stated.
Reports indicated that the police station was kept locked at all
times when no police officers were there, and the only people who
had keys to the chief’s office were Chief Wolbert, Officer Munn,
the township secretary and the janitor.
According to Officer Munn, it was common knowledge among all of
the full-time Foster Township Police Officers that the janitor kept
his keys in a locked closet, and that from time to time the janitor
left the closet unlocked, the complaint stated.
At that time, there were only four people – Officers Wolbert,
Munn, McClain, Kevin Shaffer and part-time Officer Michael Ward who
knew where Officer Munn kept the Drug Task Force funds, according
to the affidavit.
Police limited the list of potential suspects to those four
individuals, the complaint said.
Reports indicated that while investigating, police determined
that Chief Wolbert and Officer Munn were out of town for training
from March 5, 2006 to March 8, 2006 and that McClain had worked by
himself for numerous hours March 5 and March 6.
Police also discovered that at the time that the theft occurred,
McClain was going through a divorce and had filed for bankruptcy,
the affidavit said.
When County Detective Okerlund interviewed McClain on March 9,
2006, McClain asserted that he had seen Officer David Gomes at the
Foster Township Municipal Building in the early morning hours of
March 5 or 6, 2006, but Officer Gomes denied being at the building
and his girlfriend, Cassandra Aaron, verified that he was not there
even before she knew what issues were involved, the complaint
said.
Both officers Shaffer and Ward admitted to being at the station
for work-related purposes, but denied taking any funds, according
to the complaint.
The report stated that at the time the theft was discovered,
Officer Munn located a pair of latex gloves in a trash can, which
was located in the same room where the Drug Task Force money was
taken.
It was established that the gloves had been recently placed
there because, according to the report, the trash had just been
changed. Detective Okerlund collected the gloves on the day the
thefts were reported and submitted them to the Erie Regional
Laboratory for DNA analysis, the complaint stated.
McClain first stated that he had no recent reason to use latex
gloves, but later said that he may have used them during the
relevant time frame to take fingerprints of an individual,
according to the report.
However, there was no ink visible on the gloves and the Erie
Regional Laboratory found no traces of ink on them, the affidavit
stated.
According to the report, swabs taken from the gloves were sent
from the Erie lab to the Greensburg DNA Laboratory to be processed
for DNA.
The lab report, prepared on June 23, 2006, stated that “a DNA
profiled from an unidentified individual was obtained from the
major component from the swabs of the gloves,” according to the
complaint.
On January 1, 2007, a search warrant was obtained for Todd
McClain’s blood to compare with the DNA profile obtained from the
gloves, the affidavit stated. On January 5, McClain’s blood sample
was transported to Erie Regional Laboratory for analysis, according
to the report.
After further analysis, the lab report stated that “the DNA
profile obtained from the blood sample of Todd T. McClain matches
the major component of the DNA profile obtained from the
gloves.”
According to District Justice Richard W. Luther, McClain has a
preliminary arraignment in regard to the two charges at 9:30 a.m.
April 30 in McKean County District Court.
In January, one count of making false reports to law enforcement
authorities against McClain was bound to McKean County Court during
a preliminary hearing in front of Magisterial District Judge
Michael Kennedy. In that case, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
alleged that McClain sold several guns and reported to police those
same guns were stolen from his truck.
