FLORIDA SARASOTA POLICEMAN ARRESTED FOR LAPTOP COMPUTER THEFTheraldtribune.com: Southwest Florida's Information Leader: "The Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A Chelmsford police officer saddled with child-support and gambling debts was released on $5,000 bail after pleading innocent to charges including stealing money from the town's DARE program and police raffles.

Officer Michael Horan, 30, a member of the Chelmsford force for about five years and the department's DARE program officer since 2001, was arraigned Monday in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge on a 20-count indictment charging embezzlement of at least $8,000, and larceny, including the theft of a laptop computer from the Police Department and raffle money from high school sports games.

According to court documents filed by Assistant District Attorney Richard D. Grundy, Horan took charitable donations entrusted to him as the town's Drug Awareness Resistance Officer. The DARE program is designed to prevent drug use among pre-teens and teens.

Horan was placed on administrative leave in November after Chelmsford police initiated an investigation into the missing funds, said Chelmsford police Lt. Jim Murphy. Police Chief Raymond G. McCusker suspended Horan without pay on Friday, Murphy said.

The court documents filed by Grundy said that Horan was 'receiving a reduced paycheck due to court-ordered child support payments, that he carried at last seven loans with the Chelmsford Credit Union, was gambling heavily and purchased a $35,000 truck' during the two years he was assigned to oversee DARE.

A pretrial hearing was set for June 15. "