The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office is reporting that an employee responsible for the collection and storage of evidence for the Sheriff’s Office has been separated from his employment due to an impropriety.

In late July an investigation was initiated by the Division Commander of the Administrative Services Division. That investigation discovered that Mr. William Byrne, a property and evidence clerk with 14 years’ experience had mishandled property in a closed case. The property, a coin, was scheduled for delivery to the state treasury by state code. The investigation indicated that the coin, set for delivery, was switched with a coin of no value. During the investigation Mr. Byrne made statements to investigators that were determined to be false. Within days of that discovery William Byrne was separated from employment with the Sheriff’s Office due to his policy violation and an immediate audit was begun of all property and evidence. The audit has thus far shown no other improprieties with any active case from 2014 and 2015. The audit is ongoing. The Stafford County Sheriff’s Office does quarterly audits of the property and evidence room each year with additional unannounced inspections done by the Division Commander each year as well.

At the request of Sheriff Charles Jett, the incident has now been turned over to the Virginia State Police for investigation to determine if there was any criminal wrongdoing. Due to the nature of this incident Sheriff Jett met with Stafford Commonwealth’s Attorney Eric Olsen. As a result of that meeting a letter from Mr. Olsen was sent to local attorneys notifying them of this case.