Former Alton Police Officer Resentenced

A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on October 26, 2009, MICKEY L. DOOLEY, age 50, of Alton, was resentenced to prison in United States District Court in East St. Louis. DOOLEY, who was formerly an officer with the Alton Police Department, was sentenced to ten years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $640, a special assessment of $725, and restitution totaling $48, 738.58.

DOOLEY, was convicted by a jury of two counts of Making a False Statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and single counts of Wire Fraud, Corruptly Attempting to Conceal an Object (a Laptop Computer which had been seized as evidence by the Alton Police Department) with the Intent to Impair its Availability for Use In An Official Proceeding, Disposal of Money That Had Been Stolen From a Federally Insured Credit Union, Disposal of Money That Had Been Stolen From a Federally Insured Bank, Misapplication of Property Under The Care, Custody and Control Of a Local Government That Receives Federal Funds, and Failure to File a 2006 U. S. Individual Income Tax Return, on September 12, 2008, at the conclusion of a federal trial which started on September 3, 2008. DOOLEY was originally sentenced on December 8, 2008. Thereafter, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his conviction on the Wire Fraud count and remanded the case back to the District Court for resentencing. The same period of incarceration originally imposed was re-imposed on resentencing.

Evidence presented at trial established that DOOLEY, as evidence custodian for the Alton Police Department and in furtherance of a scheme to defraud the Alton Police Department and the citizens of the Southern District of Illinois, violated evidence and property management procedures, misappropriated evidence for personal gain, and thereby deprived the community of the right to honest services of the evidence officer of the Alton Police Department to preserve the integrity of evidence being stored in connection with criminal investigations and prosecutions. Evidence was adduced at trial that DOOLEY misappropriated funds being held as evidence in the Alton Police Department evidence vault, including money from two pending federal bank robbery prosecutions. Evidence was presented at sentencing that DOOLEY's actions have adversely affected numerous federal and state prosecutions where DOOLEY was or is in the chain of custody of the evidence.

The investigation which resulted in this conviction was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations, and the Illinois State Police. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Norman R. Smith and Steven Weinhoeft.