MT. CLEMENS, Mich. – The Macomb County Sheriff is asking for criminal charges for two fired Macomb County Medical Examiner’s Office employees after they were caught stealing prescription drugs that were supposed to be destroyed.
Two employees were fired from the Macomb County Medical Examiner’s Office for theft which led the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office to conduct an investigation.
The medical examiner’s office is nationally accredited but Macomb County Executive, Mark Hackel, saw some things in the operation that gave him pause, causing him to request more control.
Earlier this year the county signed a new contract with a new office management company that would do just that. Now, a year later, Hackel says he’s glad he did.
“It’s sad, nobody wants to terminate employees. I think you want to figure out how you manage these employees but, let’s face it, at times you do have folks who have issues,” Hackel said.
The sheriff’s office looked at the medical examiner’s office property room, specifically, the prescription medications that were brought to the office accompanying bodies for different reasons, an overdose for example.
The immediate concern was 20 missing hydrocodone pain pills.
The chain of custody caught investigators’ attention which prompted tips about inappropriate disposal activities, people pocketing some of those drugs.
Macomb County Sheriff, Anthony Wickersham, says he discovered 19 people had access to the property room.
“That’s not a good policy to have with an evidence room. I mean, as large as the sheriff’s office is, I have four people that have access to our property room. I don’t even have access nor want access to the property room,” Sheriff Wickersham said.
Detectives interviewed everyone at the medical examiner’s office and two employees admitted to pocketing drugs, they have since been terminated.
“If they have problems with a substance use disorder or substance abuse, reach out before situations happen where you’re doing things you shouldn’t be doing like breaching trust and stealing things and taking things from property rooms like we saw here,” Hackel advised.
The missing hydrocodone pills were not recovered.
The sheriff’s office says the investigation will continue and the case is now with the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office.