Cops acquitted of stealing from a purse

A pair of officers, accused of stealing a handbag belonging to the wife of councilor Dean Samuels, was acquitted of the charge of theft during a police tribunal on Monday.  Police constables John Galvez and Phillip Swift appeared before a panel of their superiors at the Raccoon Street Police Headquarters where, after a lengthy trial, they were cleared of the charges.  On February fifth, the duo was indicted before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith.  According to Carolee Samuels, on November sixteenth of last year she accidentally dropped her purse containing a little over five hundred dollars in cash in front of Oxygen Boutique on Freetown Road.  It is further alleged that the purse was later found by the officers; however, when Samuels went to recover her belongings she realized that the money was missing.  A subsequent investigation resulted in charges being brought against the men, who were later offered bail in the sum of two thousand dollars each.  Following testimonies from a handful of witnesses, it was revealed that there was a number of discrepancies.  Those inconsistencies eventually led to the acquittal of Galvez and Swift.  They are scheduled to reappear in Magistrates Court on April nineteenth for their criminal case