Spangler released from jail on time served
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The defendant, Robert Spangler, 40, entered guilty pleas Wednesday before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to charges of manufacture of meth and hindering secured creditors. He was directed to serve 132 days of an eight-year sentence with the balance of his term to be served on supervised probation.
Spangler was arrested last August when lawmen raided the Martin Street residence. Police reported finding several meth lab components. Spangler was arrested along with two other suspects at the home, although Spangler first maintained he did not actually live there.
Spangler was arrested again this year during a raid on an alleged meth lab in DeKalb County. His arrest there brought about a revocation of the bond he had been free under since his arrest here last year. However, charges were dropped against him in the case of the DeKalb County meth lab.
Prior to his trouble with the law, Spangler had served 15 years in law enforcement. During his career, Spangler had served as an investigator in the McMinnville Police Department’s narcotics unit, conducting undercover operation designed to catch drug traffickers.
He was a decorated patrolman, receiving the Purple Heart for being wounded on duty in a stabbing incident and was also lauded as an officer of the year. He was an employee of Bridgestone and ran his own contracting firm at the time of his arrest last year.
In passing sentence against Spangler, who stood before the judge dressed in jail stripes, Judge Stanley warned him to get his life together or face prison.
“If you have a problem, you need to fix it,” Stanley warned Spangler. “If you come back here you’ll be serving eight years.”
Spangler has requested his probation be moved to West Tennessee where his father has secured employment for him.
In addition to supervised probation, which will include drug screens, Spangler must pay a $2,000 drug fine. He must also make $4,340 restitution for hindering secured creditors. That charge comes because he sold a boat which he still had financed and then filed for bankruptcy.