SWEETWATER, Tenn -- Former part-time Sweetwater Police Officer Chris Greene has been charged with stealing the evidence money missing from SPD since last year.

SPD announced Thursday a grand jury indictment from April 3 has been unsealed.

The indictment stems from a TBI investigation and charges Greene with theft over $10,000 after $23,375 went missing from the evidence locker late last summer.

The money was seized from an illegal poker game Greene and other officers investigated last August.

“TBI has done a wonderful job investigating this and cooperating with us,” SPD Chief Eddie Byrum said.

Byrum said because of the pending TBI investigation, he had been unable to comment much on the case.

However, Greene has not been arrested and is believed to be out of the country in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, SPD officials said.

Police said TBI and federal marshals will work together to find Greene.

Byrum said SPD never denied the theft was internal but said he was glad it was not a full-time officer charged if any good can come from that fact.

Greene began working part-time at SPD in 2003.

Greene was arrested for failure to pay child support to his wife in Cleveland earlier this year and was fired at that time from his police job in Sweetwater.

Byrum said at that time Greene had been on suspension since Oct. 26, 2007, for “departmental issues” and said Greene was a person of interest in the missing money case.

Six people: Larry D. Everett, Pikeville, Jeff McClanahan, Sweetwater, Lee A. Cate, Athens, Hughel A. Campbell, Crossville, Patrick Everett, Pikeville, and E.M. Armstrong, Etowah, remain charged in the poker case after they were allegedly caught playing cards at a Sweetwater motel, the Best Value.

Byrum said since the money went missing, SPD has implemented a number of new security steps, including 24-hour camera surveillance, a safety deposit box is now used at a bank, one person is now in charge of evidence along with other measure.

(This article is a special to volunteertv.com, Written by Tommy Millsaps, Monroe Advocate & Democrat