Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Sarcoxie Police Chief charged with misuse of public information after running license check to help friend seeking identity of husband's mistress

Misdemeanor misuse of public information charges were filed in Jasper County Circuit Court today against Sarcoxie Police Chief Brandy Corum, following Highway Patrol investigation.

According to the probable cause statement, Corum, 34, Carthage, ran a check on a license plate number to help her friend, who was going through a divorce and thought the car belonged to her husband's mistress.

A July 15 arraignment is scheduled before Judge Joseph Hensley.







Details of the allegation are provided in the probable cause statement:

On November 20, 2019, I (Trooper J. L. Mason) met with Jasper County Emergency Services Director April Ford, who informed me a possible M.U.L.E.S/N.C.I.C. violation committed by Sarcoxie Police Chief Brandy Corum.

Director Ford advised she was contacted by the Pittsburg, Kansas Police Department and informed of the possible violation. Director Ford indicated she conducted an "offline search" and confirmed Brandy Corum conducted a law enforcement computer inquiry of (a Missouri license number), the vehicle registration in question.

The inquiry was conducted on October 11, 2019, by a mobile computer terminal at the Sarcoxie Police Department. Mrs. Corum's password/login information was used to access the information. Director Ford asked for the assistance of the Missouri State Highway Patrol to investigate the incident. The investigation revealed the following:

On October 11, 2019, Sarcoxie, Missouri Police Chief Brandy Corum received a text message from her personal friend (name withheld). The text displayed (the vehicle and the Missouri license number).

(The friend) is separated from her husband and is currently going through a divorce. (The friend) believed the vehicle belonged to a mistress of her husband's and she was requesting the personal information of the registered owner.

After receiving the text, Chief Corum conducted a computer inquiry using the law enforcement computer system (M.U.L.E.S./N.C.I.C.) and obtained the personal information of the registered owner (name withheld). The check of the license plate was conducted on October 11, 2019, at 1642:34 hours.

On October 11, 2019, at 1643 hours, Chief Corum texted (the friend) and provided her with the information.


On December 31, 2019, I interviewed Chief Corum. Chief Corum explained she knew that information obtained during a law enforcement computer inquiry was restricted information and releasing the information was a violation of law.

Chief Corum admitted she received a text from her friend requesting information.










After receiving the text message, Chief Corum conducted a MULES/NCIC computer inquiry and obtained the personal information of the owner.

Chief Corum then texted information from that inquiry to (her friend). Chief Corum read me the back and forth messages sent between (her friend) and herself. She voluntarily provided me with her cellular telephone to examine the messages.

Chief Corum indicated she didn't have a legitimate law enforcement need to conduct a computer inquiry of the license plate. Per Chief Corum, the vehicle never traveled through the City of Sarcoxie and based on the text message/photograph, it appears the vehicle was parked at (her friend's) residence in Pittsburg, Kansas.

During my interview with Chief Corum, she admitted to recently terminating a Sarcoxie police officer for committing a MULES violation. She also advised there were other factors that played into the termination of the employee.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Book 'em Danno!

Greg Rogler said...

sad to possibly lose athe best police Chief Sarcoxie ever had because a reporter has to sensationalize this infraction. Scold her and carry on but please dont make her leave this position!

Anonymous said...

She's one of the best police officers around the 4 state area! She truly cares about the safety of the public! Please remove this! I pray that everything will be just fine with this wonderful police officer

Anonymous said...

I've never understood why knowing who owns a plate is a big deal when I can go to the collector and assessor and find out your houses, vehicles, personal property, address, etc on a publicly available document. License plates are literally only needed for being on public roads, so how privacy came into this is beyond me. And no, knowing who someone is based on a plate doesn't make it so that it's easier for a crime against that person to take place...that's up to the potential perpetrator to not do...to say otherwise is like blaming the gun for shooting someone...it was up to the person doing it.

Anonymous said...

She admits she used her office to do an illegal favor for someone she knew.


She apparently either doesn't think, or she doesn't think the law applies to her.

What are the chances that this is the first time she knowingly did something like this?


If she loses her certification and her job it will be because other people did the right thing when she did not.





Anonymous said...

She broke the law and and given that lady the information and could have led to Lady trying to harm a lady who thought her husband mistress and the lady said I have went to the site where you can get the records that of asking a police officer to go against an oath that she took to protect that makes you wonder what else she did wrong she may have been a good police officer but that could have been just for show makes you wonder what else she did in my opinion it is wrong what she did no matter how good she was or how mattshea help the community blah blah blah

Anonymous said...

But she terminated an officer for the same crime she committed! The reporter hasn't done anything more than what she does every Monday morning by her post making community aware of criminals!

Anonymous said...

Hope they get her fired sarcoxie police department is a joke they give out false tickets to people that dont do anything they will try to stick u with anything they can just to keep their jobs they all need to be fired they all are wrong i got 2 tickets for stuff i didn't do and the tickets got dropped because they couldn't find the tickets they wrote for me because thats how many they write for no reason to Innocent people please look deeper into it there supposed to serve and protect and they just are out here ruining people's life's like come on for no reason oh it would probably help if they would treat people with respected and not like trash im sorry but they don't need to be cops if they don't want to take their jobs seriously

Hyacinth said...

I don't think that this should have been an issue. There is no right to privacy for a license plate as we have the Freedom of Information Act. I guess that the scorned wife should have found out the information by good old fashioned snooping (like the rest of us do).

Anonymous said...

Sarcoxie police is a joke. Don't handle the important issues. The dangerous issues. Just the petty ones.

Anonymous said...

Cops aren't above the law.

Greg Rogler said...

THANK YOU SARCOXIE FOR SUPPORTING CHIEF CHORUM