A former Westmoreland County police chief and a man accused of dealing him prescription pills are facing charges amid an ongoing investigation, the district attorney's office announced on Friday.

The Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office said text messages revealed that then-Ligonier Valley Police Chief John Berger was getting prescription pain pills from Michael Hootman as early as January 2021, picking them up while he was on duty. Prosecutors said multiple witnesses testified to a grand jury that Hootman was their source for drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and pharmaceuticals. 

When Pennsylvania State Police conducted surveillance at Hootman's home in April and May of 2023, police said they saw Berger in his unmarked police cruiser making exchanges with Hootman. Text messages showed Berger was there to get pain meds from Hootman, investigators said. 

"It went from focusing on trying to make an arrest of a person that we believed to be a drug dealer, and then how that spiderwebs out and where is that person getting the drugs and things of that nature, to now we have to focus and worry about the person that is leading a police department and protecting the community," said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani. 

During the investigation, police said they saw several other people going to Hootman's homes for quick visits that appeared to be drug deals. But prosecutors said Berger never conducted an investigation into Hootman for drug trafficking, and Berger never arrested Hootman for the drug deals he saw.

When investigators searched Berger's police vehicle, they said they found discarded prescriptions they believe were taken from the station's drug take-back box. A search of Hootman's home turned up cocaine, marijuana, testosterone and prescription bills, the district attorney's office said. 

"Unfortunately, he was taking advantage of the fact that the drug take-back boxes were there, and going into the drug take-back box and looking for mostly prescription pills, things of that nature that were narcotic," Limani said. 

Berger, who had been the chief since 2019, was fired in May 2023 after state police and Homeland Security raided the Ligonier Valley Police Department. As this investigation unfolded, he was accused in 2024 of sexually assaulting a patient at a recovery center where he'd been working after being fired.   

"There's no one that's more disgusted when a police officer does something against the community, commits a crime, than  the guys and girls that wear the uniforms that we wear, no matter what color, it's blue, gray, it doesn't matter. It's awful, it's embarrassing, but we're also not going to hide from it," Limani said. 

Both Berger and Hootman were charged on Friday after a presentment before a grand jury. Berger is charged with bribery, theft, obstruction of administration of law, criminal use of a communication facility and several drug-related charges. Hootman is charged with bribery and drug-related offenses like trafficking.