380 Drug Cases Dropped After Police Chief Steals the Evidence

Authorities dismissed hundreds of drug cases Thursday, saying they could not be prosecuted because the city’s former police chief stole the evidence to support his cocaine habit.

“It’s basically the loss of two years’ work,” Plymouth County Dist. Atty. William O’Malley said. “It all goes down the drain.”

About 380 cases were dismissed in Plymouth Superior Court and District Court.

“The overwhelming majority of these cases would have resulted in convictions if it weren’t for these problems,” O’Malley said.

He said some of the defendants can still be prosecuted on other charges, however.

Former Police Chief Richard J. Sproules pleaded guilty in June to stealing large amounts of cash and cocaine from the Police Department’s evidence room beginning in 1984. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of intimidating witnesses.

He was ordered to serve at least two years and four months in state prison.

Authorities said Sproules took about $170,000 from the evidence room but returned $25,000 he had hidden in his cellar.

Sproules, 46, said he used cocaine every day for five years after trying some of the samples he took to anti-drug lectures.

The drug “possessed me like a demon,” Sproules said.