Nye County sheriff’s deputy accused of taking drugs seized as evidence

A Nye County sheriff’s sergeant was arrested Saturday after deputies there say he took prescription drugs from an elderly woman’s home in Pahrump.

Colleagues grew suspicious of Sgt. Michael Horn when he insisted on logging a bottle of morphine pills into evidence Friday, according to the Nye County sheriff’s office. When narcotics officers counted the pills after he’d logged them in, 60 were missing.

By Saturday, police had a search warrant for Horn, his patrol car and his house.

Horn was coming back to the police station after going to the home of an elderly woman who said she’d heard a noise outside her house. Deputies say Horn told the woman he had to take her medication because it was a schedule 2 controlled substance. The woman said she felt she had no choice but to obey Horn’s orders.

When Horn returned to the police station, fellow deputies searched him under their warrant. Deputies found a bottle of pills in Horn’s pocket.

Horn failed a drug test, the sheriff’s office said. Deputies did not specify the type of drugs he had in his system.

When deputies searched Horn’s patrol car, they said they found several different schedule 2 controlled substances, including liquid morphine and pain pills prescribed to a female name. Investigators said they found more than 15 prescription pill bottles. They were not sure what kind of medicine was in the bottles or whose they were.

Horn faces charges including drug possession, DUI, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, coercion, burglary, unlawful use of a controlled substance, oppression under color of office, larceny, and possession of stolen property.

Contact reporter Steven Slivka at sslivka@reviewjournal.com. Follow @StevenSlivka on Twitter.