Former Grapevine officer indicted on tampering charge

A Tarrant County grand jury has indicted an ex-Grapevine K-9 officer in a case in which training drugs were stolen.

Senior officer Danny Macchio, 49, of Fort Worth, was indicted this week on a charge of tampering with physical evidence.

Macchio remained free Thursday. He posted $1,500 bail in December after his arrest in Weatherford.

Macchio was expected to face charges of abuse of official capacity and misuse of government property from $1,500 to $20,000, but grand jurors instead returned the charge of tampering with physical evidence.

Macchio was placed on administrative leave from the police department on Oct. 24 and later resigned, Grapevine police said Thursday.

Macchio had been with the force for 17 years and in the K-9 unit since December 2002. He and the department’s dog, Ranger, had arrested dozens of drug suspects and had participated in many K-9/drug competitions, officials said.

Macchio reported Oct. 7 to Fort Worth police that his Grapevine city-owned patrol/K-9 vehicle was broken into at his home in Fort Worth. He reported that a case of training narcotics, including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and Ecstasy, was stolen, along with a personal handgun.

Grapevine police have said that the drugs were used by the officer during training sessions with his dog.

An internal investigation began Oct. 17, after Grapevine police suspected Macchio of mishandling the training narcotics and the theft report.

Macchio was reported missing by a family member on Oct. 21, a day after he was required to submit a urinalysis as part of the internal investigation.

He was found in Dumas in the Panhandle and was brought home by Grapevine police.

Shortly after, Macchio confessed to Grapevine police that his vehicle had not been burglarized and that he had taken the drugs and ingested some of them, authorities said.

Police said Macchio surrendered the missing case of drugs and the weapon he had reported stolen.

This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Former Grapevine officer indicted on tampering charge."