Alabama police force put on leave after grand jury says it operated like a “criminal enterprise”

A small Alabama city placed its entire police force on administrative leave a day after a grand jury recommended the department be disbanded, saying it has “operated as more of a criminal enterprise than a law enforcement agency.”

Hanceville Mayor Jim Sawyer said Thursday in a statement that the Cullman County Sheriff’s Department will temporarily take over law enforcement duties as city officials mull the next steps. “It is unfortunate that the actions of a few have tarnished our city’s good name,” Sawyer said in a previous statement. 

Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker announced Wednesday that the grand jury had indicted the Hanceville police chief and four of his officers, who are accused of mishandling or removing materials from the department’s evidence room.

In addition to Marlin, officers Cody Alan Kelso, Drew Shelnut, Jason Wilbanks, reserve officer Eric Michael Kelso, and his wife, Donna Kelso, were also charged, AL.com reported.

They have been charged with a variety of offenses, including misuse of state criminal databases and distribution of controlled substances to each other, according to the indictments.

Citing what it called a “rampant culture of corruption,” the grand jury recommended that the department be “immediately abolished.”

“It is disturbing on many, many levels,” Crocker said Thursday by phone. He said there had been unfettered access to the evidence room but declined to discuss specifics of the allegations.

The grand jury found that the department’s mismanagement left the evidence unusable.

The probe began after the State Bureau of Investigations was called in to investigate when a dispatcher who had access to the evidence room was found dead at work, according to Crocker.

“After the dispatcher died in August of 2024, I was insistent on the State Bureau of Investigation coming in to investigate everything going on at Hanceville,” Crocker told CBS affiliate WIAT.

An autopsy found that the man died from the combined toxic effects of fentanyl and other drugs, The Cullman Times reported.

Crocker then took the matter before the grand jury.

“I hope the citizens of Hanceville and Cullman County see how seriously we are taking this. The citizens of Hanceville deserve to have public safety,” Crocker said.

The city council will meet Feb. 27 to discuss the future of the police department, the mayor said.

Hanceville is a city of 3,200 people about 45 miles north of Birmingham.

The police department had a total of eight officers as of August, according to The Cullman Times.

Longtime Hanceville resident Mike Calvert told WIAT that he was surprised by the officers’ arrests.

“Very shocked,” Calvert told the station. “Their presence has always been here as long as I could remember and it’s just a very sad situation, very sad.”

But Hanceville resident Amanda Hale told WIAT that she isn’t surprised by the arrests.

“There is a lot of good cops in that, you know, in that police department and all the ones around here, but there are the ones that want to use that badge for benefit,” Hale told the station.