Louisiana Mangham Police Chief Perry Fleming Arrested Over Theft of More Than $6,400 in Fallen Officer Family Donations
The Louisiana Attorney General's Office announced on October 26, 2026, that the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation (LBI) arrested Perry Fleming, 68, Chief of Police of Mangham in Richland Parish, Louisiana, and Dakota McKinney, 32, the department's former Assistant Chief, for allegedly stealing funds intended for the family of a deceased Mangham police officer and destroying public records. Both men were booked into the Richland Parish Detention Center on October 26, and the investigation remains ongoing.
According to the Attorney General's Office, LBI opened a criminal investigation in April 2026 after elected officials from the Village of Mangham requested assistance over concerns about potential criminal conduct inside the police department. Agents found that Fleming had opened a bank account titled as a Beneficiary account in the name of Mangham Police Officer Marshall Waters, who was killed in a line-of-duty shooting in October 2020. Various law enforcement organizations and individuals had donated seven checks totaling more than $6,400, made payable to the fallen officer's family. The checks were deposited into the account, but the family did not receive the funds, and family members said they were unaware of the account and had received no disbursements from it. Agents said Fleming used $1,844.61 from the account to finance personal travel to Washington, D.C., in October 2021 for National Police Week, including airfare, hotel lodging, meals and merchandise purchases, while the fallen officer's three adult children paid their own way to attend their father's memorial service.
Agents also found that Fleming and McKinney had destroyed public police records stored on Mangham Police Department computers. A digital forensics examination showed that police reports, arrest records, warrants and other public documents had been transferred to an external storage device and then deleted; surveillance video captured Fleming removing a town-owned computer from the department and returning it a few days later after it had been reset to factory settings, destroying all stored data. McKinney was accused of arranging for a second computer to be wiped through an information technology vendor, using a public vehicle while on duty to transport it.
Fleming was charged with one count of felony theft, one count of money laundering, two counts of injuring public records, two counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of criminal conspiracy and two counts of malfeasance in office. McKinney was charged with one count of injuring public records, one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of criminal conspiracy and one count of malfeasance in office. Fleming's bond was set at $5,500 and McKinney's at $2,500. 'One of our most solemn duties is honoring our fallen officers and helping look after their families. The Chief and the former Assistant have a lot to answer for,' Attorney General Liz Murrill said. All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于雷维尔的里奇兰县法院（资料图）。Billy Hathorn 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Richland Parish Courthouse in Rayville (file photo). Photo by Billy Hathorn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
