Hanceville, a town of 3,200 people 15 miles south of Cullman, is best known as the home of the main campus of Wallace State Community College.

The town is a dot along the way from Interstate 65 to the nearby Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, founded by Mother Angelica.

The beloved founder of the EWTN Global Catholic Network built the monastery for cloistered nuns and a 13th Century-style castle overlooking the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River.

Now, people might know Hanceville as the town with the police department where the chief, four officers and an officer’s wife were charged with crimes themselves.

The many reporters who converged upon Hanceville and tried to buzz in at the police department entrance on Thursday were told the department was not allowing visitors.

It was not clear how many officers were still on the job that morning after the arrests.

At the town hall, City Clerk Tania Wilcox was walking through the hallway on Thursday morning when a police officer from the City of Morris showed up, gun on hip.

“I think I can help y’all,” said Sandra Tanguy, a Morris police officer. “I’m willing to help. I’ve got 36 years’ experience.”

Tanguy worked 26 years as a Birmingham police officer, then with UAB campus police, and with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office before going to Morris three years ago, she said.

“I know the situation here,” Tanguy said. “They’re in desperate need. I’m definitely by the book.”

It’s hard to imagine that anyone not directly linked to the investigation could fully understand the situation in Hanceville.

‘Destroy the chain of evidence’

When the problems began is not yet clear, although court records state the crimes the officers are accused of date back to at least March 1, 2024 and continued through Aug. 23, 2024.

That was the Friday that dispatcher Christopher Michael Willingham, 49, was found dead in his office around 11 a.m.

Six days after Willingham’s death, former custodian of evidence Lowell Adam Hadder filed a lawsuit claiming the mayor fired him on April 10, 2024 with no valid reason after a heated exchange with Wilcox, the city clerk.

Attorneys for Wilcox and the city deny Hadder’s claims and the case has not been resolved.

Hadder claimed he told Mayor Jimmy Sawyer he would need two weeks to take inventory of the evidence room before he left “to maintain the chain of custody for all criminal cases then pending,” the lawsuit alleged.

Hadder said he warned not doing so would “destroy the chain of evidence.” Hadder claimed the mayor made him leave that day.

Multiple law enforcement agencies at some point launched an investigation into Hanceville police.

The State Bureau of Investigation, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, the Alabama Ethics Commission, the Cullman Police Department, and Wallace State police were all involved, officials said.

Willingham’s body was sent for autopsy at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Huntsville.

And an 18-person grand jury toured police headquarters, producing a scathing assesment that the department operates under “a rampant culture of corruption” and needs to be abolished.

‘We’re the laughingstock of the nation’

By Thursday morning, the accusations against the Hanceville Police Department were national news.

At Nature’s Effects Coffee Shop, behind the police department, owner Chris Johnson and his wife, Lisa, said they don’t want to see the Hanceville Police Department completely dismantled.

“I don’t think the police department should be shut down,” Lisa said.

“I still believe Hanceville needs a police department,” Chris said. “They need new officers and a complete audit for things to be accountable.”

One of their customers said he saw the story made the New York Times. “It’s a disgrace,” he said. “We’re the laughingstock of the nation.”

“The corruption does need to go, and whoever was associated with it,” Chris Johnson said.

A press conference was held Wednesday afternoon, hours after Cullman County Coroner Jeremy Kilpatrick said Willingham’s death was an accidental overdose from “combined toxic effects of fentanyl, gabapentin, diazepam, amphetamine, carisoprodol, and methocarbamol.”

No one has been charged in connection to his death.

Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry and District Attorney Champ Crocker shared the shocking findings of the grand jury and the indictments against the officers.

Crocker showed photos of a hole in the wall that leads to the evidence room. A broom was repeatedly used, he said, to jimmy open the door to gain access.

“It was routinely accessed by individuals who were not authorized to do so going in and out using this (broom) stick.”

Crocker said authorities don’t yet know how many criminal prosecutions could be affected by the officers’ arrests.

“We’ll look on a case-by-case basis, but I am not optimistic about the ability to prosecute,” Crocker said.

“I know right now you’re feeling a range of emotions from anger to hurt, all of the things we feel when our trust has been betrayed,’’ Gentry said. “We will do what is necessary to protect our citizens of Hanceville.”

‘There’s drugs everywhere’

Neal Watts, owner of Blue Moon Records, and previously owner of a jewelry shop in town, said there’s little crime to speak of in Hanceville.

One of the biggest problem is speeding, Watts said. “I can’t leave the door open because of the trucks and the loud cars” on U.S. 31, he said.

Aside from that, Watts said the only problems were the occasional burglaries and misbehavior by drug users.

“There’s drugs everywhere,” he said.

According to court records made public Thursday, that was even true within the town’s police department.

The records spell out the disturbing allegations against Hanceville’s police chief, 51-year-old Jason Marlin, officers Cody Alan Kelso, 33, Drew Shelnutt, 39, Jason Wilbanks, 37, Eric Michael Kelso, 44, and his wife, 63-year-old Donna Kelso.

Indicted on a combined 26 criminal charges, all six surrendered to the Cullman County Jail Wednesday, and all were released on bond.

Eric Kelso is accused of distributing Adderall to someone who is not charged in the indictments and hydrocodone and performance enhancing anabolic steroids to Wilbanks.

He also, according to the indictment, provided anabolic steroids to Cody Kelso.

Eric Kelso’s wife, Donna Kelso, is also accused of providing anabolic steroids repeatedly to Wilbanks and Cody Kelso.

Wilbanks, charging documents state, traveled while on duty to receive the “unlawfully distributed” steroids from Donna Kelso. Cody Kelso and Wilbanks allegedly both traveled to an undisclosed hospital while on duty to get the anabolic steroid injections from Donna Kelso.

The indictment also alleges Wilbanks accessed a records management system to obtain information on an unnamed woman and an unnamed man and provided that information to other officers.

He also illegally used the Law Enforcement Tactical System (LETS) to obtain a vehicle’s tag information for Eric Kelso, according to the indictment.

Wilbanks is also accused of removing and/or mishandling evidence from the property room.

Chief Marlin is charged with two counts of failure to report ethics crime and tampering with physical evidence. He retired from the Birmingham Police Department where he worked at the South Precinct.

The indictments against Marlin allege that as the head of the police force, he had a duty to report ethics violations of his officers to Alabama Ethics Commission and failed to do so.

Specifically, records state, he did not report violations by Cody Kelso and Wilbanks after being notified of the violations by the State Bureau of Investigation.

Marlin, according to court documents, also removed or mishandled evidence from the property room.

The attorney for Eric and Donna Kelso did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Court records do not yet list attorneys for the other officers.

‘Justice will be served’

City officials have had little to say since Wednesday morning.

Mayor Sawyer on Wednesday issued a statement after the sheriff and district attorney’s press conference.

“Unfortunately, the Hanceville Police Department has fallen short in its mission to serve the people,” he posted on Facebook.

“It is unfortunate that the actions of a few have tarnished our city’s good name,‘’ Sawyer said.

The mayor said he agreed with Crocker that the department’s evidence room should be audited by the appropriate authorities.

“We will uncover the truth, and justice will be served.”

On Thursday afternoon, Sawyer issued another statement saying all remaining employees of the department had been placed on administrative leave and the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office will temporarily take over the city’s protection.

At 5 p.m. Thursday, deputies began answering all law enforcement calls in the town.

“This measure is being taken until a permanent solution can be established,’’ according to a statement released on the sheriff’s office Facebook page.

Earlier that day, John Wesley, owner of Sublime Vintage store, said he saw Hanceville police officers still on duty.

Wesley was approached by one on Thursday morning who checked to see if he had his business license.

“I was unloading my truck, (and a police officer) pulls up behind me and says, ‘What are you doing?’”

Wesley said he referred the officer to his landlord. “I’m sure he’ll take care of the appropriate paperwork.”

That interaction might have be one of the department’s final acts.

The Hanceville City Council will meet February 27 at 5 p.m.

“The meeting will discuss and address the future of the Hanceville Police Department and other potential actions regarding the same,” the city’s statement on Thursday read.

Reporter Howard Koplowitz contributed to this report.