Former Henrico police investigator is charged in Oregon bank robbery

A former Henrico County police investigator convicted of stealing marijuana from the department's evidence room is in trouble again, this time for allegedly robbing a bank in Oregon.

Charles Michael Harpster, a 30-year Henrico police employee, and his wife, Tammi Lee Ann Truschke, were being held yesterday in the Deschutes County Jail in Oregon on charges of robbery and conspiracy.

Lt. Ben Gregory of the Bend, Ore., Police Department said Harpster and his wife apparently were unemployed and were living in a mobile-home park less than a block behind the Bank of the Cascades branch that Harpster is charged with robbing Tuesday.

"By verbalization and his body action, he led the teller to believe that he was armed with a weapon," said Gregory, who said no weapon actually was displayed.

A witness said someone matching Harpster's description was seen driving away in a tan Saturn, and a vehicle matching the description was found several hours later outside a bar called the Homestead Tavern.

Gregory said Harpster, 54, and Truschke, 35, were arrested when they walked out of the bar after apparently winning several hundred dollars at a video poker machine, eating cheese steaks, and drinking beer.

"Enjoying the high life," Gregory said.

He said Bend police took the video poker machine from the bar and, checking serial numbers, found money inside the device that had been taken in the bank robbery. Police also obtained a search warrant yesterday to check the Saturn for more cash, Gregory said.

Harpster spent three decades with Henrico police before he pleaded guilty in December 2006 to distributing marijuana that he had stolen from the department's evidence room.

Authorities said that in August 2005, Harpster checked out a package of marijuana from the police evidence room that had been confiscated in a narcotics case he had developed. After checking out the package, Harpster took it to a briefing room, where he stole some of the marijuana, resealed the package and returned it.

The marijuana was stolen around the same time that Harpster, then 51, was finalizing his retirement papers.

Harpster and his wife reached a deal to plead guilty to distributing less than 1 ounce of marijuana, and both were given 12-month suspended jail terms and fined $100. Prosecutors withdrew a charge of obtaining drugs by fraud.

Because the plea agreement also called for Harpster to surrender his law-enforcement credentials and not serve as a police officer for 10 years, the conviction effectively ended a law-enforcement career in which he had distinguished himself as a narcotics investigator.

His cases included one that resulted in the 1993 conviction of a western Henrico businessman for selling what authorities said was more than $300,000 worth of marijuana.

Contact Joe Macenka at (804) 649-6804 or .