Retired sheriff deputy being investigated for possibly pawning evidence

A former Ramsey County investigator is being looked at for possibly stealing evidence and then selling it to pawn shops.

Tom Rudenick retired from the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department back in January after 25 years on the job, and is now under investigation for possibly committing one of the crimes he used to investigate.

The Ramsey County Sheriff's Department says while officers were closing some of Rudenick's cases, they found some irregularities in evidence records linked to his cases. When investigators realized they weren't errors, they handed off the investigation to the Washington County Sheriff's Department to avoid a clear conflict of interest.

Sources tell Fox 9, investigators are looking into whether Rudenick took property that was supposed to go to the evidence room and sold it at pawn shops in the area.

Washington County deputies removed several items from Rudenick's home during a search, but as of now they have not revealed what they took.

Trouble with evidence making it to the evidence room is nothing new. A supervisor was charged with stealing over $1000 dollars from the Metro Transit's evidence room back in February. Additionally, the Metro Gang Strike Force was eventually shut down due to some members being accused of taking flat screen TVs, laptops, and jewelry.

Investigators are puzzled as to why Rudenick would do something like this. They said that if anyone should know they'd get in trouble for pawning evidence, it would be him.

 Here is the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office response:

"Ramsey County Investigators were closing some remaining cases from retired Deputy Rudenick and found inconsistencies in some of the property records associated with the cases. When it became clear

that these were not caused by a clerical error, the investigation was immediately turned over to the Washington County Sheriff's Office in order to assure an unbiased and transparent investigation. The Ramsey County Sheriff's Office believes in employee accountability,

to ensure the public's trust, and would like to thank the Washington County Sheriff's Office for their assistance in helping us maintain our professional standards."