Former Darien police lieutenant charged in theft of narcotics from evidence storage

Florida Times-Union, jacksonville.com
BYLINE: Terry Dickson

Darien, GA

Nicholas "Nick" O. Roundtree charged with theft of more than $1,500 in drugs


Former Darien police lieutenant Nicholas "Nick" O. Roundtree who is charged with taking narcotics from police evidence storage. Terry Dickson/The Times-Union

A former Darien police lieutenant was arrested Thursday on a charge of taking narcotics from the police evidence room, officials said.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Nicholas “Nick” O. Roundtree, 36, around noon and took him to the McIntosh County jail where he was booked and released on bail, the county Sheriff’s Office said.

Roundtree surrendered voluntarily after the GBI informed him there was a warrant for his arrest, said Mike McDaniel, special agent in charge of the GBI’s Kingsland office.

Jail records show that Roundtree was charged with one count of felony theft by taking.

The arrest warrant accuses Roundtree of taking more than $1,500 in narcotics that had been stored as evidence. The thefts occurred between Jan. 31, 2010, and May 2, 2014, the warrant says.

It was in May that Darien Police Chief Donnie Howard heard allegations of theft from the department and of suspicions that Roundtree was involved, Howard said Thursday in a release.

Howard said he immediately placed Roundtree on administrative leave pending an internal investigation. Howard said he also requested that the GBI conduct a criminal investigation.

Roundtree resigned from the police force in June after the GBI began its investigation.

Roundtree conducted an investigation this year that lead to the arrest of James Raymond Clark Jr., the former band director at Jane Macon Middle School in Glynn County.

Clark, a 47-year-old Darien resident, is charged with aggravated child molestation and criminal intent to commit statutory rape and is free on bail with heavy restrictions on his activities.

Roundtree began investigating after one of Clark’s former students, Chris Childs of Atlanta, called Roundtree and said that Clark had molested him in 2000 and 2001 when he was 12 and 13 and living in North Georgia.

Because of Georgia’s statute of limitation laws, Clark cannot be charged in that case.

Childs told the Times-Union he contacted police after seeing on Facebook that Clark was still around children.

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