Ex-Sheriff’s Officer Faces Theft Charge
A former Ventura County Sheriff’s Department supervisor was ordered to stand trial on a charge that he stole a firearm from a property room and sold it at an Oxnard pawn shop.
Acting Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark set a July 11 arraignment for Norman A. Wade, who faces a single count of grand theft.
During a short preliminary hearing, Sheriff’s Sgt. Patrick Buckley testified that in 1991 Wade admitted taking the gun from the crime lab to use for protection as he drove home.
Wade, 49, has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
He headed the Sheriff’s Department crime lab but was fired after pleading no contest two years ago to stealing a license-plate registration sticker from the property room and falsifying registration documents from his own car, Sheriff’s Department officials said.
Wade was found guilty and sentenced to two years probation for that crime.
He works in Phoenix as a toxicologist for the Maricopa County medical examiner.
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