SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A lieutenant with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office was arrested Thursday on charges of grand theft of a controlled substance, investigators said.
Authorities said Lt. Jason Bender “knowingly obtained and used controlled substances belonging to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, with intent to appropriate the controlled substances to his own use.”
A sergeant with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said he noticed “a quantity of controlled substances missing from a narcotics storage safe” from the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office City County Investigative Bureau Office, about a month after an audit was performed.
The missing controlled substances included a quantity of Roxicodone and Oxycodone pills.
Bender was taken to the Seminole County Correctional Facility.
The charges Bender faces are third-degree felonies.
Bender, who was assigned to the City-County Investigative Bureau, has been suspended, officials said.
If found guilty, one of the charges equals a maximum of five years in prison and $5,000 in fines.
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