An audit of the evidence locker done by the Criminal Investigation Division and the department showed that four evidence envelopes had been opened, narcotics taken from inside, and the envelopes resealed.
August 15, 2018
Former Lower Swatara Township police Officer Scott M. Flowers is to be sentenced in Dauphin County Court on Sept. 28, after pleading guilty July 27 to charges that he stole drugs from the department's evidence locker.
Flowers, 39, of the 400 block of Woodruff Way in Harrisburg, appeared before Judge Richard A. Lewis on July 27 to plead guilty to 20 of 21 charges associated with his case.
According to online court records, Flowers pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal trespass-breaking into structure, four counts of forgery-unauthorized act in writing, four counts of tamper with/fabricate physical evidence, three counts of possession of a controlled substance by a person not registered, and five counts of theft by unlawful taking.
Withdrawn during the July 27 plea court was one of the four counts of possession of a controlled substance by a person not registered that Flowers had been charged with when he was arrested in March 2018.
Flowers is to be sentenced by Lewis in courtroom 1 of the county courthouse in Harrisburg at 9 a.m. Sept. 28.
According to arrest papers, the Dauphin County District Attorney's Criminal Investigation Division began investigating Flowers in January 2018, after Lower Swatara police reported to the DA's office the theft of approximately $80 from the desk area of a department detective.
On Jan. 8, surveillance that the CID had set up on Jan. 7 showed Flowers removing keys from a detective's drawer and attempting to enter the evidence locker, which Flowers was not authorized to enter, according to the arrest papers.
An audit of the evidence locker done by the Criminal Investigation Division and the department showed that four evidence envelopes had been opened, narcotics taken from inside, and the envelopes resealed.
Flowers allegedly attempted to copy and trace over the signatures from the officers who had placed the evidence in the locker, in an attempt to conceal his actions, according to the arrest papers and the Criminal Investigation Division.
The narcotics that Flowers allegedly removed from the envelopes included heroin, morphine and Oxycodone. Fewer than 10 dosage units were missing from each envelope, according to the Criminal Investigation Division.
Flowers during a Jan. 9 interview at the Lower Swatara police department admitted taking the money from the detective's desk, and taking the narcotics from the evidence locker for his own use, according to arrest papers.
The Lower Swatara department immediately suspended Flowers, and Flowers resigned from the department effective Jan. 19. Flowers cooperated during the investigation, according to a press release from the DA when Flowers was arrested.
Flowers remains free on $25,000 unsecured bail.
