OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma City police officer is facing federal charges, accused of helping a group of thieves.
Officer Weston Slater is accused of hiding and helping his conspirators.
We first learned about the case in January, when Amanda Czermak was charged with conspiracy to sell items she stole outside of Oklahoma, in the state.
Then in March and again in June, several more defendants were added to the case, including Dakota Epperly, Auston Slater, Dakotah Henderson, David Aduddell, and popular homebuilder Dennis Lee.
The indictment alleges that between 2015 and 2016, some of the individuals received property stolen from other states, including ATVs, utility task vehicles, rough terrain vehicles, and zero-turn lawn mowers from other states, and brought the stolen property to Oklahoma with the intention of selling them inside the state.
In all, the stolen property is valued at $325,000.
Now a new indictment released Wednesday alleges in February 2016, defendant Dakota Epperly asked Officer Slater to use an OCPD computer to search for a certain vehicle identification number on the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, maintained by the FBI.
After the search revealed the vehicle was stolen out of Texas, Slater lied to a dispatcher about his reasons for making the NCIC search.
He’s charged with failing to inform law enforcement about a felony he knew about.
A year later, Slater allegedly lied again, this time to an FBI investigator.
He said he did not access OCPD database Varuna to search for information about Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry Investigative Services (ODAFF) agents who were investigating the stolen property conspiracy, when he had.
An Oklahoma City Police Department public information officer said Slater is still employed for the department, assigned to the Springlake Division as a patrol officer.
He is currently on paid administrative leave.
