Mooresville Police Department decries leniency for former officer convicted of child sex crime

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Former Mooresville Police Officer Matthew Beebe was sentenced after pleading guilty to indecent liberties with a minor last week, and his old employer isn’t happy about an apparent slap on the wrist.

Channel 9 reported last year when Beebe was arrested on four charges of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. On Sept. 23, Beebe took a deal to plead guilty to two counts of indecent liberties from Iredell County and one count of the same charge from Catawba County.

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Beebe was sentenced to probation for a total of nine years, and he’ll have to register as a sex offender for 30 years. He also has to give up his law enforcement officer certification.

Mooresville Police Chief Ron Campurciani says that’s not good enough.

“This is the most outrageous ‘prosecution’ I have witnessed in my almost four decades in this profession,” Campuriciani said in a statement this week. “This man committed despicable acts on a minor. At the same time, this predator continued to lead his double life and put on his public face to serve as a police officer with the Town of Mooresville.”

Campuriciani said when he found out about the allegations last year, he knew it would be a “black mark against the department,” but he said being transparent with the public “would be the only appropriate course of action for us to take.”

Campuriciani followed his statement, saying: “The men and women that make up the Mooresville Police Department work so hard every day to serve this community. They are very much aware that there is a distrust of the police. That is why we treat everyone fairly with dignity and respect. We hold our officers accountable if they do not treat everyone with those same values. The ones that don’t buy into this philosophy, learn very early on that there is no safe place for them to land at the MPD. A decision like this widens the gap of distrust for the police and the whole criminal justice system.”

The chief said he got word about the plea just 24 hours before it happened. He’s calling for answers about the sentencing.

“Putting a predator like Beebe back on the streets, is not only dangerous but irresponsible,” Campuriciani said. “The entire Mooresville Police Department, the Town of Mooresville Board of Commissioners, the Town Manager, and the dozens and dozens of people I have heard from everyday over the course of the last week about this sentencing want and deserve answers to this debacle.”

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