A former detective with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has been arrested after being accused of stealing money from their investigative fund. Deputies began investigating 31-year-old Christopher Gallagher in late August after his supervisors noticed a suspicious receipt for using investigative funds for a $60 narcotics purchase. Gallagher, who started at the sheriff’s office in 2008, was working in the Special Investigations Division’s Tactical Two Unit as an undercover narcotics detective. Deputies say they found Gallagher would take money from the investigative fund and falsify receipts and the signatures of other deputies, allowing him to pocket the funds.
