Inside job

An Oroville woman pleaded guilty Tuesday (March 28) to stealing guns and drugs and falsifying documents to cover up the theft while working as an evidence technician in the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.

Kathleen Acosta, 48, was arrested and charged with multiple felonies after she was pulled over following a domestic dispute in January. Police found a gun, methamphetamine and prescription drugs—still in evidence packaging—in her car. Acosta resigned from the BCSO rather than be fired last year when she was accused of mishandling property and attempting to conceal her misconduct.

After the arrest, searches of Acosta’s residence and storage units turned up more property stolen from evidence, including 19 more guns. She’d falsified documents so the BCSO believed the guns were destroyed in 2015.

Acosta is facing up to nearly four years in jail, and is scheduled to be sentenced June 20.