TENNESSEE (WDEF) – The wife of a McMinn County sheriff’s deputy was arrested yesterday after an investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation revealed that she was responsible for removing drugs from the safe of her husband’s police vehicle last year.
29-year-old, Marquita Price, of Niota, Tennessee, was indicted yesterday on one count of theft over $1,000, one count of possession of schedule I drug for resale and two counts of possession of a schedule II drug for resale.
Last December, her husband discovered that the safe in the trunk of his police vehicle had been tampered with and the drugs stored inside had gone missing. After reporting the missing drugs to his supervisors at the sheriff’s office, an investigation was launched whereby it was determined that Price had stolen 20 grams of cocaine, nine grams of methamphetamine and 10 grams of heroin from evidence bags. The drugs were stored in the vehicle to use as training tools for the sheriff’s office K-9 program.
Price was booked into the McMinn County Jail on $50,000 bond.