LANAGAN, MO. -- Lanagan's police chief and an officer have
been suspended without pay following their indictment for writing citations on
a nonexistent statute and altering an annual racial profiling report.
Police Chief Larry Marsh, 52, and Officer Michael Gallahue,
38, were arrested and charged Friday in McDonald County Circuit Court following
their indictment by a grand jury impaneled earlier this year.
Marsh is charged with five counts of forgery, three
pertaining to citations and two to racial profiling reports. Gallahue is
charged with two counts of forgery, both pertaining to citations.
The citations were issued between August and October of last
year and referenced “ordinance ‘307.000,'” according to charging documents
filed by McDonald County prosecutor Jonathan Pierce. Marsh allegedly filed
racial profiling reports with the Missouri Attorney general's Office in 2009
and 2010 that “purported to have a genuineness” that they did not possess, the
documents state.
Circuit Judge Tim Perigo ordered the grand jury called in
February to examine procedures of municipal courts. The seating of the grand
jury followed the issuance of an audit of the town's books by the Missouri
State Auditor's Office, which rated the town's accounting practices and municipal
court procedures as “poor.”
The Missouri State Highway Patrol conducted a subsequent
investigation leading to the indictments.