2 Detroit police officers charged in theft, misconduct cases

Charles Lynem, Chancellor Searcy to be arraigned Tuesday

DETROIT – Two Detroit police officers are facing charges of embezzlement, larceny and misconduct in office for allegedly lying and stealing during two arrests in 2013 and 2014.

Charles Lynem, 28, and Chancellor Searcy, 31, were arraigned Tuesday.

Police Chief James Craig said the two are seven-year veterans of the department and work on a tactical response unit. He also said they voluntarily turned themselves in.

Prosecutors said Lynem and Searcy arrested a 31-year-old man at a gas station on Outer Driver on March 18,2013, and confiscated money from him. It is alleged that there was wrongful conduct surrounding the detention, frisk, seizure of property and the arrest of the suspect. They're charged with embezzlement, larceny, misconduct in office and filing a false report.

In a second case on Sept. 27, 2014, Lynem and Searcy arrested a 41-year-old man on West Grant Boulevard for carrying a concealed weapon. Prosecutors said Lynem and Searcy fabricated documents and the circumstances surrounding the suspect's arrest. They're charged with misconduct in office, filing a false report and willful failure of a public official.

Searcy is also charged with misconduct in office, larceny from a person and failure to uphold the law by a public official in two more cases.

He's accused of wrongfully searching and taking money from a 28-year-old Detroit man on Aug. 4, 2014, and doing the same thing to another man on Aug. 10, 2014.

Prosecutors said both of the men who were searched by Searcy have filed formal complaints with the department.

"We always take any allegations of misconduct, particularly those that are criminal in nature, we take those allegations seriously," Craig said.

Lynem and Searcy were suspended with pay last year when the investigation began, but they are now suspended without pay, Craig said.

Charles Lynem and Chancellor Searcy


Charles Lynem and Chancellor Searcy