Of all the people charged with upholding the law, the buck stops with the chief. That’s who’s supposed to run the department and keep everyone in line. In this case, however, the crooked cop turned out to be none other than the chief himself.

Anson Fenton, the former police chief of Wayne City, Illinois, from 2022 to 2023, has pled guilty to charges of “misapplication of property from federally funded programs” and “interstate transportation of stolen property.” The property in question is motorcycles the department obtained through asset forfeiture. This is a controversial practice in which property involved with a crime is confiscated and sold, with the profits going to the police department that made the arrest and confiscated the property. How nice for them. Controversy aside, this practice is legal and not the issue here. The problem is what happened next.

“As police chief, Fenton was responsible for safeguarding, documenting and preserving property within the care, custody and control of the Wayne City Police Department,” says the statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois. Instead, he took it upon himself to sell two confiscated Harley-Davidson motorcycles without the authorization of the Wayne City Board of Trustees, which is supposed to review and approve all such sales. Even worse, rather than providing the proceeds of more than $5,000 to the police department, he simply kept the money for himself.

That’s just the first charge. For the second charge, interstate transportation of stolen property, Felton rode a confiscated 2022 Suzuki Hayabusa all the way to Alexandria, Virginia. There, he traded it for a 1991 Ford Mustang, which he also kept for himself. Aside from the question of why a crooked cop would trade a fast motorcycle for a five-point-slow Fox body, this offense crossed state lines, which escalated charges to the federal level when he got caught. Wayne City had also been receiving federal funds that were presumably connected with the Harley-Davidson forfeitures, making that a federal charge as well.

“No one is above the law, especially those charged with upholding the law, and the Illinois State Police will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement at all levels to protect the public’s trust,” said ISP Director Brendan F. Kelly. Fenton will be sentenced on July 30. He faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 per count.

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