Key Takeaways
- Earl Mayo, the former police chief of New Chicago, faces seven felony charges, including theft and official misconduct, for selling a gun from his evidence room.
- Mayo tried to evade arrest in Ohio after investigators traced a Taurus G3 handgun he sold to a pawn shop that was supposed to remain as evidence.
- He allegedly offered $600 to buy back the gun and instructed an officer to retrieve suppressors from his home, raising concerns about evidence integrity.
- A woman, Taneka Roshawn Borders, is also charged for attempting to recover the gun on Mayo’s behalf, complicating a related criminal case.
- Mayo’s arrest raises serious questions about accountability and the handling of evidence by law enforcement officials.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
NEW CHICAGO, IND. — The man who ran this small town’s police department is now sitting in an Ohio jail cell, accused of pulling a gun out of his own evidence room and selling it to a pawn shop.
Earl Mayo, 45, led the New Chicago Police Department in Lake County. According to WGN, he was arrested Friday in Clark County, Ohio, after he tried to evade arrest. He faces seven felony charges, including theft, official misconduct, attempted obstruction of justice and unlawful possession of anabolic steroids.
Here is what makes this one sting. The gun at the center of the case was evidence in a pending criminal matter.
WGN reported the investigation started when a Lake County deputy prosecutor asked a detective, who also serves as an ATF task force officer, to run a trace on a handgun tied to a 2023 case. That case involved a woman accused of carrying a handgun unlawfully after a prior felony conviction.
The trace showed the gun, a Taurus G3, had been sold on April 29, 2025, at Mega Cash Pawn in Hobart. Investigators say the seller was Mayo, the same officer who made the arrest in the original case.
That firearm was supposed to be locked up as evidence. It could not be destroyed or sold without a court order. No such order existed.
It gets worse. Investigators say Mayo tried to get the gun back after the fact, allegedly offering $600 to the customer who had returned it to the shop.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Mayo called one of his own officers and asked him to buy the gun back. WGN reported he also asked that officer to go to his home and pull suppressors or suppressed firearms out of a safe.
Mayo allegedly told the officer he had things inside his house the “feds would never find.”
A 47-year-old woman, Taneka Roshawn Borders, is also charged. Investigators say she went to the pawn shop with $600 to buy the gun back for Mayo. When a detective arrived to seize the Taurus on May 22, staff said Mayo had called ahead to say she was coming to pick it up.
When officers went to Mayo’s home in Merrillville, Borders answered the door. WGN reported she was wearing the same pink track suit a detective had seen her leave the pawn shop in. She allegedly admitted Mayo sent her to grab testosterone and steroids, and that she tried to destroy several vials.
The pawn shop manager told police the store had bought 12 guns from Mayo for $2,610 in April 2025. It is not clear how many of those were tied to other cases.
More from USA Carry:
I want to be clear about why this matters to gun owners. Every lawful gun owner in this country is held to a strict standard. We fill out the 4473. We sit through the background check. We follow the rules when a firearm changes hands. Here you have a sworn police chief accused of treating an evidence gun like personal inventory and stashing suppressors he allegedly wanted hidden from federal agents.
There is also a defendant whose prosecution may now be in jeopardy because the evidence against her went to a pawn shop counter. That is not a small thing. Evidence integrity is the backbone of every firearms case the government brings.
Mayo is presumed innocent, and he is entitled to the same due process any of us would demand. His father, Indiana State Police Major Jerry Williams, who is the Democratic nominee for Lake County sheriff, said in a statement to WGN that the family is deeply concerned and that the legal process should be allowed to proceed fairly.
WGN reported Mayo was previously convicted of a misdemeanor theft charge. It is not clear whether that was known when he was hired.
