Ex-police chief indicted in theft, false reports case

Gerald Ray Goza, former police chief of Egypt, a tiny Craighead County town, has been indicted on federal charges of theft of government funds and two counts of making a false statement to the Social Security Administration.

A federal grand jury indicted Goza on March 6, alleging that from Aug. 25, 2015, through Jan. 16, he took more than $1,000 in Social Security funds to which he knew he wasn’t entitled. The indictment says that last year, on June 10, he submitted a false work activity report saying that his employment as a security officer with Universal Protection Service had ended in 2018 and that he hadn’t received any employment pay or benefits since, when he was actually working as the town’s police chief.

Goza is also accused in the indictment of submitting a false report to the government Aug. 29 claiming that he hadn’t worked since the date of his last medical disability decision from the agency.

Egypt, located near Jonesboro, had a population of 112, according to 2010 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Goza was indicted in the Jonesboro division of the Eastern District of Arkansas. Records showed that he hadn’t yet made a court appearance as of Friday.

On Feb. 12, KAIT-TV, Channel 8, in Jonesboro reported that Goza resigned Jan. 7 after being removed from serving as a law enforcement officer by the Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training. The station also reported that prosecutor Scott Ellington had asked that all criminal cases arising from citations issued by Goza or the Egypt Police Department be dismissed.

The report said an audit in January “found several issues with the Egypt police chief’s high school diploma which prevent him from performing his duties as a law enforcement officer.”