Ex-Indiana police officer pleads guilty to keeping evidence

PAOLI, Ind. (AP) - A former southern Indiana police officer has pleaded guilty to keeping methamphetamine and other police evidence that was supposed to have been placed in the department's evidence room.

Tyler Phillips pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of criminal conversion, a misdemeanor, in Orange County Superior Court, after a special prosecutor had charged him earlier Tuesday, state police said.

The former Paoli police officer resigned from the department on Jan. 10. Four days later, Paoli Police Chief Randy Sanders asked Indiana State Police to conduct an investigation of Phillips, WDRB-TV reported.

State police said in a news release that investigators determined that evidence was missing from several of Phillips' cases, and that he allegedly had taken several items of evidence to his residence in Paoli, a town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Louisville, Kentucky.

Phillips also had allegedly conducted a controlled buy of methamphetamine but had kept that meth in his possession instead of placing it into evidence, state police said.

Online court records do not list an attorney for Phillips who could speak on his behalf.