A judge has sentenced a former police officer to 90 days in jail for making up a story about being shot in the line of duty. The officer shot himself in the arm and then filed for workers’ comp.
Bryan Eubanks, a former Newcomerstown police officer, is also required to pay a $2,000 fine and $1,973 in restitution to the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office, and perform 500 hours of community service. His state certification as a peace officer has also been revoked. He’ll also be on parole for two years. If Eubanks violates his parole, he faces up to one year in prison – a part of his sentence that was suspended.
An investigation found that on April 11, 2017, Eubanks shot himself in the arm while on duty. Eubanks had claimed he was shot by a man in a car after stopping him for a traffic violation. As a result, local, state and federal authorities responded to the alleged shooting of an officer.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office says Eubanks named an individual as the shooter in his story and claimed the perpetrator had a mobile drug lab in his car.
The AG’s office says Eubanks admitted his story was a hoax only after facing the possibility of a polygraph test.
Eubanks was charged with six counts:
- workers’ comp fraud
- forgery
- inducing panic
- making false alarms, and
- two counts of tampering with evidence for taking apart and discarding his personal .25-caliber gun – the weapon he used to shoot himself in the arm.
Eubanks says shooting himself was a suicide attempt because he’d been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Prosecutors say it wasn’t a suicide attempt, rather a complicated scenario involving an affair he was having and personal debt. Eubanks shot himself because he’d used money his girlfriend gave him to get a divorce to cover other expenses, according to prosecutors. They say shooting himself was an attempt by Eubanks to get sympathy from his girlfriend.
