Stacey Chasteen, 49, the former Greensburg chief of police, asked to be spared any prison time. Fighting back tears, she said her troubles delved from her husband’s infidelity, saying that the trauma triggered a depression that resulted in her gambling addiction.
She told the judge their marital problems began in 2010. However, in her statement to Indiana State Police, she said she began stealing from the evidence room in 2006.
Scott Chasteen, now separated from his wife, did not attend the hearing. He resigned as Greensburg Fire Chief soon after admitting to helping her try to replace the stolen money.
The prosecutor told the judge he was skeptical of Stacey’s attempt to blame her crimes on her past misfortunes.
“Your honor, the decline of Ms. Chasteen’s marriage is a tragedy,” Nathan Harter said. “That she became addicted to gambling and lost a lot of money is a tragedy. That she lost her father is a tragedy.
“That she stole money from an organization she was meant to protect and from people that she swore to defend is not a tragedy. It is an abuse of her position and trust.”
Stacey’s sentencing had a great effect in Greensburg due to her high standing in the community. To this day, local shop owners and townspeople refer to her by her first name.
During her more than 20 years on the force as the city’s lone female police officer, she modeled in local style shows and competed in the city’s “Dancing with the Stars” competitions alongside her husband. In 2012, Stacey was honored by the Optimist Club as the Law Enforcement Official of the Year.
In court, Stacey said she and her husband had separated in the spring of 2010 when Scott told her he did not love her and did not want to be married anymore. She began receiving numerous anonymous phone calls stating that Scott was seeing other women. These revelations, she said, drove her into a deep depression. This was when she said she began gambling at a casino in Shelbyville.
“At first it was just for fun,” she said. “A co-worker and I would go.”
Soon she began losing money by herself for hours. She would play the slots until 3 or 4 a.m., go home, shower and go to work.
“Just because I didn’t want to feel alone,” she said. “When I was there I didn’t have to think about anything else.”
Stacey went on to say she primarily lost. She used her salary up, began maxing out credit cards and took out Payday loans.
She moved back in with Scott in 2012, but the phone calls continued about his infidelity. He confessed when confronted about it, and Stacey continued to gamble. She said she often thought about suicide — and still thinks about it.
Stacey said she began stealing from the Greensburg Police Department’s evidence room in late 2011, early 2012, but her statement to the ISP said she began in 2006.
The theft she plead guilty for was $72,945 that was seized from a prostitution ring at Right Touch Massage Therapy in 2012. Stacey said she told Scott about the stolen money. The two also went to both of their respective fathers for money. Scott’s father gave them $50,000, and Stacey’s father supplied the rest.
Despite Scott thinking she replaced the money in the evidence room with their fathers’ loans, she actually gambled with that money as well, losing it all. She admitted to destroying the property records in the evidence room.
As Stacey made her case in court, the courtroom was largely occupied by the Greensburg Police Department sitting behind her in support. Her attorney Sean Thomasson asked if the people behind her had reason to be upset with her.
“Yes, because I jeopardized all the good that they did,” Stacey said.
“I wouldn’t allow what the guys had done to be jeopardized by what I did,” she said, explaining her decision to turn herself in.
Stacey took out her $46,000 police pension in January. She repaid her father’s estate, who died Sept. 12, 2014, but has not made any effort to repay her father-in-law, the police department or the city. She has spent $5,000 of the pension on a used car and $1,200 on a bed. She estimates she has over $20,000 left from her pension, which the prosecution said she has not been truthful about. She admitted to keeping the majority of it in a safe controlled by a friend.
Hon. Tim Day ruled that she must hand all of this money to the city of Greensburg within 10 days.
The fact that she plead guilty and that she had no prior record helped her case as mitigating factors.
Aggravating factors were that she attempted to cover up her crimes and that she knew she was taking away from children, as $40,000 of the massage parlor evidence money was intended to go toward helping schools. Also, she was in a position of trust as police chief.
“In my opinion, the aggravating outweigh the mitigating,” Day said.
Day initially decided the sentence of one and a half years for each count to be fair, but then added six months to each due to aggravating factors. He opted to suspend the final two years for probation.
