A former police chief in Westmoreland County was accused of selling cocaine over several years. 

According to the criminal complaint, former Arnold Police Department Chief Eric Doutt sold cocaine to a confidential informant three times. The confidential informant was working with the Pennsylvania State Attorney General's Office, but more information about that working relationship was not released by law enforcement.

Investigators followed Doutt from his home in Arnold to multiple prearranged meeting spots near Kittanning, where they say he sold cocaine using recorded buy money, according to the criminal complaint. 

During those drug buys, investigators say Doutt worried out loud about fingerprints left on baggies and his license plate being spotted.
They say he also feared someone overdosing because that would spark a criminal investigation.

Doutt was once a school board member in the New Kensington-Arnold Area School District and, most recently, worked as a police officer at UPMC Passavant Hospital. KDKA reached out to both for comment, but did not hear back on Friday.

Doutt, who has been a law enforcement officer since 1996, is in the Armstrong County Jail after being unable to post bail. His preliminary hearing is next week. 

"This type of conduct by a trusted officer of the law violates the oath he took to keep our communities safe," Attorney General Sunday said in a news release. "As a sworn officer, he was duty bound to remove these dangers from the community and instead, we allege he peddled these poisons."

Arnold residents react 

Residents haven't forgotten that this was not the first time a police chief in Arnold was arrested. 

The man who replaced Doutt as chief, Josh Stanga, was arrested and charged with theft during a sting operation. They say these latest charges only deepen their mistrust.

"The reason I liked him was because he was civil to the people in the community," Sheila Milisits said. "He treated 'em right and talked to them right. But how can you be shocked at anything today?"