Police Chief Jose Lopez Sr. said he is "disappointed" by the arrest of a Durham police officer on break-in charges, the third in a series of embarrassments for the Durham Police Department.
Wake County sheriff's deputies charged Stephen Patrick Commander Jr., 31, of Oxford, with breaking into a Wake County home and telling the people there that a person he was seeking would be dead by the end of the day if they did not reveal his whereabouts.
Commander has been charged with one felony count each of breaking and entering, and extortion, according to an arrest warrant filed at the Wake County Clerk of Courts Office.
Investigators have accused Commander of breaking into a residence at 16113 New Light Road in Wake Forest on Jan. 27. Two people, Kimberly Ann Morgan and Harvey Curtis, were inside the home. They told Wake investigators that Commander announced he was looking for Nazareth Hurst and that they "better tell me where Nazareth is or he will be dead by the end of the day," according to the arrest warrant.
Commander turned himself in to Wake deputies without incident on Jan. 29, according to Phyllis Stephens, a Wake County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. He was released from custody after posting $3,000 bail and ordered to have no contact with the people who were in the home, court records show.
Durham police spokeswoman Kammie Michael said Commander was not on duty, nor was his search for Hurst part of any police investigation.
Commander made his first court appearance Tuesday in Wake County District Court. His case was continued until Feb. 23.
"We have no comment at this time," Logan Howell, Commander's attorney, said Wednesday.
Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez issued a statement Wednesday saying he was "deeply disappointed" by the recent arrests of Commander and a former Durham officer, Sherrod Peace. The are 496 officers total with the Durham Police Department.
Peace, a 35-year-old former UNC football player, was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on weapons and drug violations after he was charged Dec. 21 with distributing less than 5 grams of crack cocaine and possessing a .45-caliber handgun.
Michael said Commander joined the Durham department in January 2007. He works as a patrol officer and earns an annual salary of $38,850. He is still employed with the department pending an investigation by the department's professional standards and criminal investigation divisions, which is standard policy when an officer has been criminally charged. Michael declined to say whether Commander was actively on patrol.
Commander, reached by phone Wednesday, said he wanted to talk about the incident but had been advised not to comment.
"I wish I could, but I can't," he said.
Both arrests follow a high-profile overtime scandal that cost Deputy Police Chief B.J. Council her job when an officer she supervised claimed $62,000 in extra pay.
Alesha Robinson-Taylor, 39, oversaw the system that assigned officers off-duty work. She claimed 1,837 hours of overtime from September 2008 to August 31, making $62,000 in extra pay. Her salary was $52,665.90.
Robinson-Taylor was fired in October after an anonymous e-mail tipped off city officials to the overtime excess. An audit and investigation found Council not only knew about the overtime as early as last fall, but then assumed responsibility for approving Robinson-Taylor's extra hours. Council took personal leave until she retired on Dec. 31.
City officials have said they're looking to recover about $45,000 that was paid to Robinson-Taylor, who joined the department in 1997.
The investigation is now in the hands of the State Bureau of Investigation.
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