UPDATE
March 8, 2022
LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Christopher Walls pleaded guilty in November 2021 to manufacturing a controlled dangerous substance and to causing a risk of widespread injury. As a result, he was sentenced in March 2022 to 10 years in state prison.
Read more.
May 17, 2021
LONG BRANCH, N.J. — A New Jersey police officer was arrested Sunday for running a meth lab out of his house, prosecutors announced Sunday
Christopher Walls, 50, a 19-year veteran of the Long Branch Police Department, was arrested after his co-workers were called to his house Saturday night because of a domestic disturbance, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Officers were tipped off by someone at the residence of Walls’ illegal activity. As a result, they discovered the ingredients and equipment for making meth in the basement and a shed, a statement from the prosecutor said. Moreover, Walls had books related to making meth, explosives and poison, the release said, according to the New York Post.
A 19-year veteran police officer of the Long Branch Police Department has been suspended without pay after he was arrested and charged today with various offenses related to manufacturing and maintaining a methamphetamine laboratory at his home. https://t.co/uN2IeKAZSD pic.twitter.com/m9LfCvKyAI
— Monmouth County Prosecutor (@MonCoProsecutor) May 16, 2021
Local police worked with state investigators, the prosecutor’s statement said.
“It is particularly distressing that this hazard was caused by a sworn law enforcement officer,” Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said in the statement.
Walls is facing six charges related to the production of methamphetamine as well as a second-degree child endangerment charge and firearm possession during a controlled-dangerous substance offense, the Post reported. He was suspended from the department without pay, pending the results of the investigation.
There is a maximum exposure of 60 years in prison if convicted of all the charges. Walls was booked at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution.