A former Norton police officer has pleaded guilty to criminal charges, including allegations that he conducted illegal searches, stole private property, stole drugs from police departments and sold weapons.

Paul Edward Bevins Jr., 35, waived his right to be indicted by a grand jury and instead pleaded guilty to a six-count information June 7 in Wise County Circuit Court, according to court records. An information is a document listing the prosecution's charges against an individual, as opposed to indictments coming from a grand jury.

Bevins entered an Alford plea, which means he did not admit to committing the crimes but pleaded guilty because prosecutors had sufficient evidence to convict him. Some of the charges stem from an investigation into police corruption following Appalachia's May 2004 town council races.

Bevins pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining cash and property worth more than $200 from persons who were being searched and converting it to his own use; one count of making false statements in an affidavit he submitted to a county magistrate to get a search warrant for the Appalachia residence of Franklin Thacker; one count of stealing property, including an AR-15 rifle and a .25-caliber automatic Titan pistol, from the Norton Police Department and selling the items to third parties; one count of stealing narcotics from the Wise County Sheriff's Department and Norton Police Department; one count of obtaining Schedule II and Schedule III controlled substances by fraud; and one misdemeanor count of recklessly handling a firearm.

Prosecutors allege in the information that from about June 2004 until this past March, Bevins devised a plan and scheme to use his position as a police officer to benefit himself personally. This plan and scheme included unlawful conduct by Bevins, the information states.

Bevins, who was Norton's representative on the Southwest Virginia Regional Drug Task Force, could have faced a maximum sentence totaling 76 years if he had been tried and convicted on the charges. Under a plea agreement with special prosecutors Tim McAfee and Greg Stewart, however, Bevins was sentenced to three years in prison with all three years of the sentence suspended. He was placed on three years of supervised probation and three years of post-release supervision. The sentences will run concurrently with each other.

As a condition of his probation, Bevins must pay investigative restitution of $2,500 to the sheriff's department within the first two years of his supervised probation. In addition, Bevins must submit to random drug testing and successfully complete all substance abuse programs as determined by his probation officer during his probation.

Norton Police Chief Kenny Jackson Friday declined to discuss the case involving Bevins, referring all questions to the special prosecutors, but he confirmed that Bevins no longer works for the department.