Former Nashville Police Officer Charged With Drug Dealing

(NASHVILLE, Ind.) -- Prosecutors charged a fired town police officer with drug dealing.

Robert M. Easterday Jr., 32, of Bloomington, faces seven drug-related charges including dealing in crack cocaine and attempting to sell psilocybin mushrooms between September and January, prosecutors said.

Six members of a grand jury heard testimony in the case before returning the indictments Wednesday. Easterday was being held Friday in the Brown County Jail on $20,000 bond.

"No one is above the law, and it's really disturbing when a police officer is accused of breaking the law," Brown County Prosecutor Jim Oliver said.

Nashville Town Marshall Jack Dorsett suspended Easterday from the police force in February. Easterday had reported his work-issued handgun missing from his former Nashville home. The Town Council in Nashville, 15 miles east of Bloomington, later fired the seven-year veteran for dereliction of duty.

A day after the gun was reported missing, Easterday told his boss he had recovered it from Robert J. Saunders, a 25-year-old acquaintance and Easterday's one-time neighbor. Saunders said he had found the gun, which had its serial number filed off.

Saunders was charged with unlawful possession of a handgun by a serious violent felon, possession of an altered handgun and receiving stolen property.

The indictment said Easterday asked Saunders if he knew anyone interested in buying the mushrooms.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)