Whipped Cream Difficulties

This is an odd story.

Charles Anthony Malouff used to be a cop; he worked for both the Bosque County sheriff’s office and the Bertram Police Department. In 2007, he was convicted of “unlawful transfer of a firearm” and got three years probation.

The charge related to Malouff’s keeping and handling of noise-flash diversionary devices, also known as flash bangs or stun grenades, a federal affidavit said.

It is not clear to me if he resigned or was fired, but in either case he stopped being a police officer.

Malouff and Mary Jo Woodall have been indicted on various fraud charges; the two are accused of trying to fraudulently obtain federal stimulus funds for a wind farm near Jonestown.

Back in October, search warrants were served at Malouff and Woodall’s homes. In the process, two gun safes were found at Woodall’s home. Woodall said they belonged to Malouff. The safes were opened, and…

…authorities found 36 guns and at least 10 so-called “destructive devices,” including eight grenades, court documents state.

According to the Statesman, the “destructive devices” were registered to the two agencies Malouff worked for. Malouff has pled guilty to the weapons charges; the plea agreement specifies a 2 1/2 year sentence, subject to judicial approval. The Statesman article raises a whole host of questions:

• What, exactly, were the “destructive devices”?
• I think we know eight of them were grenades. But what kind of grenades? Did Malouff have more flash-bangs left over from his previous work? Or were these real grenade grenades?
• If they were real grenade grenades, why did the two agencies have them? What does a police department do with a hand grenade?
• If they were flash bangs, I think the same question still applies. I’ve been to Bertram a few times, and it isn’t a place where I think they’d have a lot of use for flash bangs in SWAT raids.
• “Malouff remains under indictment in state District Court on charges of securing execution of a document by deception and misapplication of fiduciary property, both first-degree felonies punishable by up to life in jail.” Wow. So he gets 2 1/2 years on the gun charges, but the fraud charges can put him in prison for life?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012 at 7:46 am and is filed under Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.