No criminal criminal charges will be filed but police chief called conduct ‘totally unacceptable’

BILLINGS (AP) — The city has disciplined three police officers for mishandling packets of erectile dysfunction medication that were recovered from a driveway.

Officers Sandy Leonard, Terry Bechtold and Curtis Eckhardt were suspended without pay for two weeks. The suspensions went into effect Dec. 19, meaning all three are scheduled to return to work next week, the city said.

The three officers originally were placed on paid leave Oct. 28 after an investigation revealed Eckhardt and Bechtold took sample packets of the prescription medication Levitra. The packets were brought into the department by Leonard after she recovered them on Oct. 13 from a driveway in Billings.

Interim Police Chief Rich St. John said in a statement Wednesday that no criminal charges would be filed against the officers, but called their conduct ‘‘totally unacceptable.’’

In disciplinary documents, St. John said that shortly after Leonard brought the recovered medication to the police station to log it as ‘‘found property,’’ the officers began joking about the pills and their purpose.

‘‘Officer Bechtold was present and subsequently took two sample boxes ... saying ‘I could use some of these,’’’ St. John wrote.

Leonard thought Bechtold was joking, and asked him to return the sample packets, the letter states. Instead, Bechtold took the packets with him when he left the department. While Leonard was out of the room, Eckhardt also took two sample packets and left the building, St. John wrote.

Bechtold returned the two samples on Oct. 27 when a lieutenant confronted him. Eckhardt returned the samples he took the next day after he also was questioned.

Leonard was disciplined because, although she was aware some of the medication was missing, she never reported it to her supervisors.