Disgraced Bossier cop could be released from jail soon after pleading guilty to additional charges

KTBS 3 ABC
June 21, 2023

SHREVEPORT, La. -- Harold “B.J.” Sanford, the now-retired Bossier City police sergeant who admitted stealing from the police union he headed and using some of the money to fraudulently obtain prescription drugs, could be out of prison early this summer after pleading guilty to additional charges of abusing his police powers.

Sanford in May received a sentence of a year and a day after pleading guilty to federal charges regarding the theft and drug fraud – making him eligible for release from custody after 10 months. He must make restitution of $31,470 to the union.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to state malfeasance charges alleging Sanford, facing the loss of a lucrative moonlighting job as an apartment-complex security officer in Bossier City, misused confidential police information in an effort to intimidate the apartment manager who was letting him go.

In a plea agreement between Bossier Parish prosecutors and his defense attorneys, Sanford received a suspended sentence, a $1,000 fine and is on probation for two years.

Sanford, 53, has been in federal custody since late August, making him eligible for early release in a matter of days, but federal authorities have not given him a release date, his attorney said Wednesday.

Sanford, who faced up to five years in prison, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Foote, who by making his sentence a year and a day made him eligible for time off his sentence for good behavior. Had the sentence been one year or less, under federal sentencing rules Sanford would not have received any good-time credit. The sentence imposed by Foote was within the range set by federal sentencing guidelines, an individual with knowledge of the case said.

Federal authorities said Sanford siphoned off more than $31,000 that donors to the union had intended for charitable purposes: such as Shop With a Cop, which raises money for underprivileged children to go Christmas shopping, and a program to publish a book that would tell students about the dangers of opioid drugs.

Federal authorities said Sanford conspired with a union fundraiser to steal money and to get prescription pain killers.

That fundraiser, Mitch Morehead, has also pleaded guilty. U.S. District Judge Don Walter sentenced him in May to credit for time served and Morehead was released from custody.

The FBI said Morehead solicited money from area businesses and other individuals by telling them he was raising money to support the charitable purposes of the police union. Morehead’s commission was 50% of what he raised and Sanford took increasing amounts of that money, authorities said.