The fallout from a staggering small-town police scandal just hit the command level in New Chicago, Indiana.
Members of the town’s police commission gathered Monday night and voted unanimously to fire Police Chief Earl Mayo effective immediately.
The decision strips the veteran lawman of his authority just days after his May 24 arrest on seven heavy felony counts. (YOU MISSED: New Chicago Police Chief Earl Mayo Arrested After Selling Evidence Gun to Pawn Shop)
Town attorney Lloyd Mullen stated that the entire community is still reeling because residents placed immense trust in Chief Mayo.
Mullen admitted he personally liked the chief and genuinely believed the department was doing a good job before the scandal broke.
The investigation has exposed a bizarre storage loophole that allowed confiscated weapons to leave police custody in the first place.
The New Chicago Police Department operates out of the River Forest School Corporation building in neighboring Hobart.
Because the station sits inside an active school, strict safety regulations completely ban firearms from being stored on the premises.
The town allowed Chief Mayo to take all confiscated weapon evidence home to store inside his personal residential safe.
Federal agents with the ATF are now actively tracking that private safe to determine exactly how many weapons passed through his house.
The entire scheme collapsed because an honest street cop refused to let a corrupt boss drag him into a felony cover-up.
Court documents show Chief Mayo called Officer Antione Goffin with a desperate, panic-fueled command.
Mayo allegedly ordered the patrolman to rush to the Hobart pawn shop, buy the missing trial handgun back, and scrub his home safe clean.
Officer Goffin flatly refused to follow the illegal order and reported the interaction straight to investigators.
The town rewarded that exact line of integrity Monday night by naming Goffin the new interim police chief.
The town attorney publicly cleared Goffin of any conflict of interest, noting that the honest officer simply chose to tell the absolute truth.
Mullen made it clear that if Goffin had obeyed his superior’s command, the young officer would be facing felony charges today.
Interim Chief Goffin acknowledged the heavy burden of taking over a fractured department in the middle of a media storm.
The new chief warned that managing a small town is a tough, complex job despite what outside onlookers might think.
Goffin announced that his immediate mission is to boost officer morale and establish total transparency for local taxpayers.
The disgraced former chief successfully posted bond after state authorities extradited him back to Lake County from an Ohio jail cell.
Mayo faces multiple pending felony charges including theft, official misconduct, attempted obstruction of justice, and steroid possession.
Local residents can expect a crowded courtroom when the former chief walks in for his first formal hearing this Friday morning.
