Correction appended

A Gresham police detective sergeant who stole prescription drugs from a public drop-off box at the police station was sentenced Friday to a year and a half of probation and agreed to give up his state police certification.

Robert X. Fay, 52, was formally charged in Multnomah County Circuit Court, pleaded guilty to first-degree official misconduct and was sentenced the same day. Circuit Judge Eric Bergstrom also ordered Fay to perform 60 hours of community service and undergo drug treatment.

Fay has been a police officer in Oregon since 1989 and an officer with the Gresham department since 1992, state records show. He retired from the department Wednesday.

The Gresham Police Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.

Fay went into the drop-off medication box in the Gresham police lobby on April 18. The department found out about it and reached out to Oregon State Police to investigate the case, which began the next day, said Brent Weisberg, a Multnomah County District Attorney's Office spokesman.

Fay told investigators he went into the box four times and took items out twice, Weisberg said. One of the items taken was a placebo pill that was put in the drop box by detectives during the investigation.

Weisberg said Fay was seeking medication to ease the pain of an injury from playing football. The district attorney's office became aware of the criminal investigation also in April and received all the reports in the investigation for review in May, he said.

Fay early in the case retained an attorney, who worked with the district attorney's office to resolve the case in "one fell swoop," Weisberg said. Similar arrangements aren't uncommon, he said. Weisberg didn't immediately have any statistics on how often it happens in Multnomah County or how often it occurs in cases involving law enforcement workers.

"Criminal defense attorneys who have clients who want to make the arrangement for an immediate plea deal certainly can do that," Weisberg said. "That door is always open."

Fay was never arrested or booked into jail in the case, Weisberg said, because of factors that included him cooperating with the criminal investigation, him facing an accusation of a misdemeanor crime and him not appearing to be a flight risk.

*Note: A previous version of this story contained a misspelling of the district attorney office spokesman's name.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey