BLOOMVILLE, OH - He was trusted to enforce the law, but he broke the law.
A former police officer in Seneca County is going to prison.
William Laugherty was an officer in Bloomville which is located southeast of Tiffin.
He's now serving six months behind bars for stealing about a thousand dollars worth of metal to scrap from the village.
Bloomville is a small town. It's home to almost one thousand residents. The village hall has only half a dozen people on staff.
So it's a big deal that on Monday a former employee, William Laugherty, was sentenced to six months in prison.
"We have somebody we entrust to enforce our laws who was himself violating the law," says Seneca County Prosecutor Derek DeVine.
Laugherty is convicted of stealing $1,029.80 worth of scrap metal, brass, and plumbing fittings from the village when he was a part time Bloomville police officer in 2011.
"During the course of several work days, he actually worked nights, he took various items from the village garage that would be recyclable," says DeVine.
DeVien says Laugherty used some of what he stole in his own home remodeling and sold the rest to Seneca Core scrap yard in Tiffin.
"A whole roll of copper was taken," says Former Bloomville Mayor Barbara Jacoby. "They had just gotten it and they had used it on one job and it was gone!"
Jacoby was mayor when it happened.
She says surveillance video at the village maintenance garage caught Laugherty in action, as well as the scrap yard as he was selling it.
"He just said you know that something was wrong with the car and he had all these bills," says Jacoby. "I have mixed feelings. I just wish it could've been handled in a better way."
DeVine says Laugherty has requested a notice of appeal be filed on his behalf.
He was taken into custody yesterday after sentencing to begin serving his six months.
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