Nearly five dozen felony criminal cases were dismissed by the same Cullman County grand jury that said the police department that made the arrests should be abolished due to the agency’s “culture of corruption.”

Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker on Wednesday said the grand jury made the decision in April following an Alabama State Bureau of Investigation audit into the Hanceville Police Department.

Crocker said the grand jury was left with no choice to dismiss dozens of cases that the Hanceville Police Department previously investigated due to “illegal actions” taken by former officers with the department.

“The Grand Jury that unanimously indicted the former Hanceville police officers determined that those officers’ cases, and other cases from the Hanceville Police Department, were unprosecutable,” Crocker said.

“The same Grand Jury reconvened in April and voted to no-bill, or dismiss, 58 felony cases due to the illegal actions of those former Hanceville officers.

“Most of these cases involved drugs, and only a few were personal crimes with victims. One dismissal is too many, but the Grand Jury had no other recourse.”

Crocker posted photos of the audit, evidence room and dismissed cases to Facebook.

The audit demonstrated an abundance of undocumented or missing evidence such as undocumented guns and missing bullets that are valued at $90 or more dollars a box.

Of the 650 packages of evidence kept by the department, 249 had no associated case number, Crocker said. Of the 96 guns in the evidence room, 30 were undocumented.

Another 78 evidence bags had been torn open and 216 grams of meth, 1.5 grams of cocaine, 67 Oxycodone pills and a .25 caliber handgun were among items missing.

In February, the former Hanceville police chief, several officers and a wife of one officer were arrested after being indicted by the same grand jury.

The indictments were sparked following an investigation into the department after a former Hanceville police dispatcher, Christopher Willingham, was found dead at work in August 2024 from a drug overdose.

Hanceville Mayor Jim Sawyer has said that he is committed to rebuilding the police department following the scandal and on March 10 the Hanceville City Council voted to begin that process.