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Ex-officer sold guns from evidence vault
The former Fort Myers officer gets two years of house arrest for stealing the guns.
©Associated Press
September 8, 2002
FORT MYERS -- A former Fort Myers police officer, who once ran for Lee County sheriff, was sentenced to two years of house arrest for stealing guns from the department.
Investigators said James Woodby, 61, who had worked in the evidence section since 1997, stole at least 11 guns and sold several at gun shows.
One of the missing guns was related to an unsolved murder case and another was sold for $400 to a police Explorer Scout with the Fort Myers Police Department.
Woodby, who ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in 1988, pleaded guilty in June to dealing in stolen property, grand theft of firearms and official misconduct for stealing the guns from the department's evidence vault. He was sentenced Friday.
Fort Myers police Capt. Glenn Johnson testified during the hearing that Woodby tried to cover up his actions by doctoring paperwork to make it appear the guns had been destroyed.
Woodby, who started with the Fort Myers department in 1967, also had served as police chief in Frostburg in Polk County, and as chief of the Lee County Airport Police.
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