Former Dickinson County officer sentenced for theft

​Pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft for stealing more than $22,000 in cash that had been seized as evidence

July 11, 2018

ABILENE — Gregory R. Swanson, a former lieutenant with the Dickinson County Sheriff's Office, expressed remorse before being sentenced for felony theft Wednesday in Dickinson County District Court.

In April, Swanson, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft for stealing more than $22,000 in cash that had been seized as evidence by the Dickinson County Sheriff's Office between Aug. 30, 2012 and Jan. 19, 2017, and more than $3,400 in buy money used by the Drug Enforcement Unit.

Swanson had access to the drug enforcement unit evidence room, as well as control of money used by undercover officers to purchase narcotics, according to an affidavit written by a special agent with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

"I got in over my head and was doing my best to put it all back," Swanson said to Judge Robert Fairchild during Wednesday's sentencing hearing.

On May 19, 2017, Swanson submitted a letter of resignation from the sheriff's office, along with $19,000 in cash received from his mother after she took out a loan on her home, according to the affidavit.

House arrest denied

According to the plea agreement, which Fairchild upheld, Swanson is to pay the remaining $6,760.29 in restitution. Fairchild waived a $5,000 fine but ordered Swanson to pay court costs totaling $513.

Charges dismissed under the plea agreement were felony counts of official misconduct and criminal solicitation.

Swanson also received a seven-month prison sentence that was suspended. He instead was placed on supervised probation for two years. As a condition of probation, Swanson was ordered to serve five days in jail.

Bobby Hiebert, Swanson's attorney, argued that because of Swanson's law enforcement background, it wouldn't be safe for him to serve his sentence in the Dickinson County Jail and asked if Swanson might be placed on house arrest at Swanson's own expense.

If that was not possible, Hiebert said, he requested Swanson's jail time be split into two periods, one 48 hours and the other 72 hours, to be set later.

Assistant Kansas Attorney General Lyndzie Carter said house arrest would be a direct violation of the plea agreement, but she did not object to splitting the jail time. Fairchild denied house arrest but approved dividing the jail sentence.

Forfeits shield

"Possibly you will serve this in Dickinson County, but it's up to the sheriff's discretion if (Swanson) serves it in another county," Fairchild said.

Swanson agreed to permanently forfeit his law enforcement credentials in Kansas and any other state. Before joining the Dickinson County Sheriff's Office in 2009, Swanson worked for 19 years for the Saline County Sheriff's Office.

Meant to repay

Swanson was accused of destroying, tampering with or concealing evidence of the theft and then asking Dickinson County deputy Brent Gering to assist him in official misconduct, according to the affidavit.

The majority of the money Swanson took, the affidavit said, was seized during a search of a Chapman residence on Jan. 25, 2012, and was being stored in the drug enforcement unit evidence room. On Jan. 19, 2017, Gering was asked by Undersheriff James Swisher to deposit the money with the Dickinson County Treasurer's Office. When Gering went to retrieve the money, he was met by Swanson, who told Gering he had taken money from the evidence room and used it to pay for his father's funeral, among other things.

Swanson asked Gering not to tell anyone, saying his mother was getting a bank loan and he would put all the money back by Jan. 22.

During a later interview with law enforcement officials, the affidavit said, Swanson confessed to borrowing money and then repaying it, but it didn't take long until he was in over his head.