Ex-Greensburg police chief accused of taking backpack of drugs from evidence room

Former Greensburg Police Chief Shawn Denning, who resigned in January after his arrest by federal authorities, is facing more trouble as Westmoreland County detectives on Thursday charged him with taking items from the department’s evidence room.

Denning, 42, of Delmont, is charged with theft, conspiracy and three counts of tampering with evidence, all misdemeanors.

Investigators said the evidence in question — a backpack containing suspected steroids and psilocybin mushrooms — was listed to be destroyed, but it never was and instead is missing from the evidence room in Greensburg, according to court papers.

The backpack is connected to a drug investigation Denning conducted with fellow officers.

“This evidence was handled only by Denning, from its seizure to entering it into evidence,” Chief County Detective Ron Zona wrote in the complaint.

Denning’s attorney Steven Townsend said his initial assessment of the detectives’ complaint is that is “seems like a pretty thin case” and relies on memories of other officers regarding the evidence in question.

Townsend said Denning told him the Greensburg Police Department’s system for handling evidence is “not very good. All of that is a very loose and fluid system down there. It’s been like that for years.”

“We’re going to need a little more information before we can figure out what their allegations are,” Townsend said. “I think when we dig into the evidence, we’re going to find it didn’t happen the way it was alleged in the complaint.”

Veteran Greensburg officer Charles Irvin, who has succeeded Denning as police chief, declined comment on the latest charges against Denning and on Townsend’s remarks.

An audit of the department’s two evidence rooms started on Feb. 16, nearly a month after federal authorities claimed Denning was the go-between for interstate drug deals.

Only certain officers can access the evidence rooms with a key. Denning was one of them.

Detectives said items in one of the rooms was slated for destruction, including a box of drug evidence from a case Denning investigated, according to court papers. That case involved a search warrant at a New Alexandria home in May 2022. Denning opted not to file charges because the suspect was cooperative in other narcotics investigations, he wrote in an incident report obtained by detectives.

Photographs of the items seized were taken, but they weren’t documented in a report, according to court papers, and other evidence confiscated was in the box, except the gray backpack and its contents. One officer told investigators he remembered seeing the steroid bottles on Denning’s desk. They were later listed as destroyed, detectives said.

The charges were being sent by summons. An Aug. 17 preliminary hearing is set.

A Marine veteran, Denning joined the Greensburg police force in 2008 after serving with the New York City Police Department and a department in Manor Borough. Quickly rising through the ranks in Greensburg, he was promoted to chief in March 2022, following the retirement of his predecessor. The DEA probe was underway at that time.

He is awaiting indictment in the federal case, the deadline for which is June 23. That date has been pushed back twice while Denning’s attorney and prosecutors discuss the case, according to court records.

He is charged with six counts, including aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine and methamphetamine and conspiracy.

DEA investigators laid out evidence in a complaint filed in Pittsburgh federal court that Denning reportedly acted as middle man between an informant and dealers in California. They included conversations between the pair on smartphone apps where Denning is accused of providing contact information for the out-of-state suppliers and a ”menu” of their available drugs, as well as how to transmit money to them electronically. The pair met sometime during the summer of 2021, the complaint said.

Denning vouched for the suppliers, and the DEA provided the informant with money to place orders, according to the complaint. The mailed packages that were confiscated contained drugs, authorities said.

The informant was wearing a wire at an Oct. 8 cornhole tournament during which authorities said Denning gave the informant a set of cornhole bags to make up for the informant losing $500 in a purchase that was never delivered.

Attempts by the Tribune-Review to reach city Mayor Robb Bell and police Capt. Donald Sarsfield, who was interviewed by county detectives as he had access to the evidence room, were unsuccessful.