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Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said Wednesday that dozens of felony cases investigated by the Hanceville Police Department are "unprosecutable."

"The Grand Jury that unanimously indicted the former Hanceville police officers determined that those officers’ cases, and other cases from the Hanceville Police Department were unprosecutable," Crocker said in a post on Facebook.

"The same Grand Jury reconvened in April and voted to no-bill, or dismiss, 58 felony cases due to the illegal actions of those former Hanceville officers.

"Most of these cases involved drugs, and only a few were personal crimes with victims. One dismissal is too many, but the Grand Jury had no other recourse."

Crocker says the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation completed an audit of the evidence collected by the Hanceville Police Department in connection with the cases. Included in the audit were a complete list of dismissed cases and photos that showed firearms, missing cash, as well as the general condition of the police department's evidence room.

Crocker's announcement comes after five former Hanceville police officers and one of their spouses were arrested back in February, following an investigation into the 2024 overdose death of a dispatcher.

Here is a summary of that inventory released by the State Bureau of Investigations:

• Approximately 650 packages of evidence were located inside the evidence room. Of these, approximately 249 were not documented with case numbers.
• 96 firearms were also located inside the evidence room, 30 of which were undocumented to associated cases. Approximately 78 evidence envelopes/bags were unsealed or torn open. Based on the evidence labels on those packages, the following items and an estimated quantity are missing.
• Methamphetamine/Amphetamine - 216 grams
• Cocaine - 1.5 grams
• Oxycodone pills - 67
• Adderall pills - 4
• Heroin - .5
• Clonazepam pills - 4
• Gabapentin pills - 39
• Tizadine (muscle relaxer) - 5
• Methoxarbamol (muscle relaxer) - 5
• Suboxone strip - 1
• Firearm(s) - 1 .25 caliber hand gun

SBI agents were later contacted by Hanceville Mayor Jimmy Sawyer, who located additional evidence lockers used for temporary storage that nobody knew about. On April 1, agents conducted an inventory of the temporary holding lockers. 

Twenty-five packages of evidence, some dating back to 2006, were located in those temporary holding lockers. Four of the 25 packages were not documented with case numbers.

One unsealed package was labeled to contain $983. The package had been torn open at the bottom and contained no cash.

A second unsealed package was labeled to contain two boxes of .40 caliber Winchester Black Talon bullets. The crime listed was possession of Teflon-coated bullets (armor-piercing). However, Black Talon bullets are not armor-piercing but hold a collector value of approximately $90+ per box. Both boxes were missing.