No charges in investigation of former Ranlo police chief, SBI says

RANLO, N.C. — No criminal charges will be pursued after the investigation of Ranlo’s former police chief, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations announced.

In spring 2020, the town of Ranlo asked the SBI to evaluate about $55,000 in additional income that former chief Tim Anderson received from the town between 2016 and 2019.

After a 14-month investigation, the SBI submitted its findings to the Gaston County District Attorney. Based on the findings, the DA will not pursue any criminal action, the town said in a statement.

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Channel 9 reported in 2020 that former Police Chief Tim Anderson was the subject of an investigation into questionable activities with the town’s finances.

The SBI said the investigation pertained to money paid to Anderson while he was employed as chief and interim town manager.

Channel 9 learned the allegations were related only to his work as town coordinator and there was no investigation into the police department.

Channel 9’s Ken Lemon spoke with the mayor pro-tem in 2020, who did not say how much money was involved or from which account or at what time.

“I don’t believe that our city deserves to be in the dark financially,” Mayor Pro-tem Katie Cordell said.

The SBI got involved, which means it was activity that can be considered criminal. Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell asked the agency to get involved.

“We want to get to the bottom of it, and we want to make sure our dollars, as we are citizens of Ranlo, our dollars, as well as everyone else’s, are well guarded,” Cordell said.

Town officials wouldn’t reveal a lot of the financial problems they discovered, except that it did not appear to involve grants or outside funding, Cordell said.

She said they didn’t want to release information that could hurt the investigation.

Anderson resigned in February 2020 after weeks of closed-door discussions with the town council.

He served with the department for 23 years.

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