The chief of police in the Greene County town of Cairo has been arrested on felony charges, in what state police say is a case of evidence tampering.
A New York State Police statement has little specific information about the case, but states that 48-year-old Cairo police chief Christopher Sprague is charged with tampering with public records and tampering with physical evidence in the first degree, tampering with a witness in the fourth dgree, and falsely reporting an incident in the first degree.
From the statement:
The charges are the result of Sprague's improper handling of evidence and falsely reporting information to the State Police.
Neither a story in today's Catskill Daily Mail nor an Associated Press account of Sprague's arrest has any specific information about the case Sprague is accused of tampering with. The Daily Mail reports that a state police investigator confirmed the charges stem from a single case:
State police Senior Investigator Scott Youngblood declined specific comment late Thursday because the investigation is ongoing. But he was able to confirm the investigation began Wednesday, March 20, and that the matter is all relevant to evidence from one case.
Sprague was arraigned before town justice Raymond Kennedy in the Town of Durham Court, and released on his own recognizance to reappear in court at a later date.
