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GUNNISON — The former chief of the Gunnison Valley Police Department is now facing criminal drug charges.
Seth Tyler Hendrickson, 41, of Axtell, Sanpete County, was charged Thursday in 6th District Court with two counts of heroin possession, methamphetamine possession and cocaine possession, class A misdemeanors; and possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and official misconduct, class B misdemeanors.
In March, a police K-9 officer went to the Gunnison Valley Police Department to have his dog recertified for drug detection. As part of that training, the Drug Enforcement Administration sent a small amount of heroin, meth, cocaine and marijuana to the department in a FedEx box for training, according to charging documents.
"The K-9 officer stated that he put the FedEx box in his office desk drawer. The drawer is behind locked doors, accessible to police employees. The police employees who worked in the office knew the drugs were kept in that drawer. When the K-9 officer went to retrieve the training aid substances, the FedEx box was missing from his drawer," the charges state.
While searching the evidence storage room, the officer reported finding another container that he had given to Hendrickson in February that also contained a small amount of drugs. The chief stated that he "needed to show a youth group the dangers of drugs and asked where the K-9 officer's 'DEA drugs' were," according to the charges.
But the container was never returned. And when the officer found it in the storage room, "officers found that the 28 grams of heroin and a small amount of psilocybin mushroom stems were missing," the charges say.
Because of that, the K-9 officer confronted Hendrickson about whether he took the new box of drugs that was to be used for training, and the chief said it was in his car. "The vehicle was searched at the police station. Officers found a FedEx box in the back seat behind the driver's seat," the charges state. "While each bag was open, only the heroin was missing."
Two syringes containing brown residue that tested positive for heroin were also found, according to police. Hendrickson was drug tested on July 17 and "codeine, morphine, and heroin metabolite" were found in his system, the charges allege.
Hendrickson was placed on administrative leave in late May and resigned from the department in July.
