HONESDALE, Pa. — A man tasked with upholding the law has landed himself on the wrong side.
The Pennsylvania State Police integrity bureau and attorney general's office announced felony and misdemeanor charges against Corporal Brian Rickard.
State Police allege Rickard stole heroin from the evidence room at the barracks in Honesdale where he was stationed.
People we spoke to couldn't believe it.
"I'm shocked, I'm surprised," said George Hunter from Tafton. "I've never heard of anything like that around here."
Investigators said Rickard was using the heroin he allegedly took from evidence while on the job for the Pennslyvania State Police and tried to use the computers at work to cover his tracks.
It's disappointing news to White Mills resident Sandy Chestnut, who calls herself a police supporter.
"You want to trust them and you want to believe that they're there to protect you and not be doing and on the job it's 1,000 times worse," said Chestnut.
Chestnut said it's another sign of the larger drug problem she sees in the community.
"It could happen in any job that someone gets involved in that," said Chestnut. "Being that he stole it from evidence, that's something very serious."
Kert Myers lives right around the corner from the Honesdale barracks. He feels the corporal's alleged actions should call all of his previous work into question.
"He has investigations he's doing, all kinds of stuff, you know," said Myers.
"So they all have to be reviewed, all the work he done the last year, probably. All the arrest, all that stuff, they could be tainted."
Rickard has been suspended without pay.
The attorney general's office is handling the investigation.
