{"id":32247,"date":"2026-03-04T10:55:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=32247"},"modified":"2026-03-04T10:55:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T16:55:47","slug":"former-carlyle-police-chief-facing-federal-criminal-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/32247-former-carlyle-police-chief-facing-federal-criminal-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Carlyle Police Chief Facing Federal Criminal Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The former police chief of the Carlyle Police Department is facing several federal charges for allegedly embezzling more than $100,000 for his personal benefit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment charging Mark A. Pingsterhaus, 52, of Carlyle, with two counts of wire fraud and two counts of theft of government funds.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe strongly support law enforcement because the overwhelming majority of officers serve with dedication, honor, and courage. But when any officer, especially a chief, betrays the community they are sworn to protect we will take decisive action,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Steven D. Weinhoeft. \u201cI appreciate our partnership with the Carlyle Police Department and city officials, who have fully cooperated in good faith during the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the indictment, Pingsterhaus is facing charges for allegedly embezzling funds from at least January 2017 to November 2025 as police chief for the City of Carlyle and as the chief financial officer for the Carlyle Fire Protection District.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pingsterhaus is accused of using City of Carlyle and Carlyle Fire Protection District funds for unauthorized and personal expenses like travel, entertainment, goods and services. In two examples, the indictment states he used the City of Carlyle\u2019s bank card to purchase WNBA tickets and the Caryle Fire Protection District\u2019s bank card to purchase jewelry from Zales.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOur partnership to combat violent crime and drug trafficking with the Carlyle Police Department and surrounding agencies has led to results that have undoubtedly made the region safer. That being said, our mission is to not only combat violent crime, but to protect against the exploitation of the very systems designed to help our communities,\u201d said FBI Springfield Field Office\u2019s Special Agent in Charge Ruben Marchand-Morales. \u201cWhen resources meant for community elevation are diverted for personal gain, it undermines the safety we work so hard to build and harms the community we swore to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He is also accused of using funds from the Carlyle Police Department\u2019s Drug and Education Fund for personal expenses.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Convictions for wire fraud are punishable by up to 20 years\u2019 imprisonment and theft of government funds can earn up to 10 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The FBI Springfield Field Office is leading the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter T. Reed is prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The former police chief of the Carlyle Police Department is facing several federal charges for allegedly embezzling more than $100,000 for his personal benefit. A federal grand jury returned a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former Carlyle Police Chief Facing Federal Criminal Charges - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/32247-former-carlyle-police-chief-facing-federal-criminal-charges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Carlyle Police Chief Facing Federal Criminal Charges - 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