A retired Toledo police officer was sentenced Monday in federal court to four years probation for stealing guns from the department’s property room.
“I know that I messed up,” Curtis Stone, Sr. said during his sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Toledo. “I regret my actions. I do wish I could do it over and not do those things.”
Stone, 56, of Delta, Ohio, previously pleaded guilty to a felony possession of stolen firearms. He appeared Monday before U.S. District Court Judge Jack Zouhary for his sentencing — potentially facing a maximum of 10 years in prison.
As conditions of Stone’s probation, Judge Zouhary ordered him to complete 400 hours of community service, to pay a $4,000 fine, and to put on a course for young people on gun violence. Such a course could give back to the youth in the community in a positive way, the judge said.
“I’m balancing a bad crime with a good man,” Judge Zouhary said.
In a news release after the court hearing, Toledo police Chief George Kral described Stone’s actions as a violation of the community’s trust.
“While we respect the court, the sentence was surprisingly lenient,” he said. “I hope Mr. Stone realizes the harm he has done and the trust he has lost.”
Investigators said Stone had weapons that were taken between February, 2016, and December, 2018, while he worked in the Toledo Police Department’s property room. Those included a 9 mm Canik 55 pistol and a Taurus .380-caliber pistol.
Toledo police recovered the loaded Canik pistol during a traffic stop in September, according to a complaint filed in federal court. Officers charged an occupant of the vehicle with having weapons under disability because of past drug and gang-related convictions.
Investigators discovered the pistol previously had been recovered by police in 2015 and had been marked as destroyed in February, 2016, by Stone, who worked in the property room at the time. Toledo police then obtained a warrant and on Dec. 4 searched Stone’s residence, where they recovered the Taurus pistol that had been logged as destroyed on Dec. 21, 2017, by the officer.
Stone’s defense attorney, Sheldon Wittenberg, argued during Monday’s sentencing hearing that Stone had taken responsibility for his actions since the beginning. When officers executed a search warrant on his home, Mr. Wittenberg said, Stone cooperated and told the officers that he had a gun, that he had taken it from the property room, and where it was in his home.
“It certainly shows that he’s acknowledged his guilt,” Mr. Wittenberg said.
The judge then asked Stone what he would have done differently, if he could go back to the moment he learned one of the guns he had taken from the property room was missing. Stone said he could have told his sergeant at TPD what he’d done and what had happened.
“What were you thinking?” the judge asked. “You of all people?”
“I wasn’t,” Stone said.
Stone retired from TPD in January, 2018.
The police department announced in February that it was changing policy and procedure in its property room and allocating $10,000 for security upgrades as the result of the case.
First Published August 26, 2019, 6:44 p.m.
