Former Morgan County deputy charged with stealing guns he seized

A former Morgan County Sheriff’s Office deputy is facing felony charges after being accused of stealing guns he seized during traffic stops.

Morgan County prosecutors last month filed theft and official misconduct charges against Zachary Bernstein, 27, after items he seized while on duty last year were found in his possession — several months after he resigned from the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office and moved to Bradenton, Florida.

Officers arrested Bernstein on July 22, and he posted bond shortly after.

Bernstein’s attorney, Courtney Allen, did not immediately respond to The Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment on the allegations.

According to the probable cause affidavit, which Fox 59 provided The Lawyer on Monday, a woman came to the sheriff’s office in June to retrieve her handgun, which Bernstein allegedly had seized during a traffic stop in May 2025.

Sheriff’s Office staff were unable to locate the gun and a small amount of methamphetamine that Bernstein also reportedly seized during the traffic stop. Another Morgan County Sheriff’s deputy, David Tolan, contacted Bernstein, who was living in Florida after resigning in November.

According to the affidavit, Bernstein initially said he turned in the gun and was unaware of where it could be, but he later sent a photo of the gun to Tolan and confirmed it was with him in Florida. Bernstein asserted that the gun was left in a small personal safe he owned, which he said he had kept in his patrol car as a way to secure seized firearms.

Bernstein voluntarily turned the gun in to the Bradenton Police Department.

Morgan County Sheriff’s Office detectives Shane Norris and Ryan Thompson traveled to Florida in mid-June to pick up the gun and speak with Bernstein.

On June 16, Norris and Thompson met Bernstein at the Bradenton Police Department to talk about the incident. Bernstein told the investigators that after he performed the traffic stop and seized the gun and methamphetamine, officers considered asking the woman, Crystal Snyder, to be a criminal informant but later decided not to.

Still, Bernstein waited months before filing charges against Snyder. Bernstein said he got caught up in other cases and neglected to turn in Snyder’s gun, according to the affidavit. When he moved to Florida, he said he also took his personal safe that he forgot the gun was in. Bernstein said his decisions were from genuine human error.

Bernstein told investigators he did not know what happened to the unaccounted-for meth. Later, Norris found case photos dated Nov. 7, 2025, that seemed to indicate the meth had been at the sheriff’s office’s evidence submission desk, but that could not be confirmed.

Investigators also inquired with Bernstein about another missing gun from one of his past cases. In April 2025, Bernstein performed a traffic stop and seized a purple handgun. According to the affidavit, Bernstein tried to file charges against the suspect, but the prosecutor’s office declined to move forward with a case.

When asked if he knew where the purple gun was, Bernstein told investigators he was certain it had been turned in.

But upon leaving the interview, Bernstein later called Thompson and said he found the purple gun in a large duffel bag full of medical gear that the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office had issued to him.

The detectives again invited Bernstein to come back to the Bradenton police station for an interview, which he agreed to.

According to the affidavit, Bernstein told investigators that he had made bad choices, but they were not criminal. He said he had no intention of keeping the firearms when he seized them.

Through an investigation of Bernstein’s 2025 criminal cases, Norris said he found several other cases that appear to be missing evidence. Norris also said he discovered a pattern of Bernstein reporting incidents much later than when they occurred.

During an interview with Norris, Deputy Tolan said Bernstein had a habit of going after drugs but not following up on the paperwork.

According to the affidavit, an audit is ongoing, and more charges could be filed based on the findings.

The case is State of Indiana v. Zachary Bernstein, 55D03-2607-F5-001047.