Logan police chief put on leave
Moran suspended after being charged with tampering with files at previous job
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Logan Township Police Chief Devon Moran was suspended without pay Thursday after he was arraigned on a misdemeanor charge of tampering with public records in Centre County.
The charge was filed in relation to actions allegedly taken by Moran while employed by the Ferguson Township Police Department shortly before he was named chief of the Logan Township Police Department.
Moran said the incident is a "misunderstanding."
During the Logan Township supervisors meeting Thursday, Chairman Jim Patterson said the board has "the utmost confidence" in Moran, despite the ongoing litigation.
Moran, 41, is facing a misdemeanor count of tampering with public records after he allegedly deleted a significant amount of important data from the Ferguson Township police department while under the department's employment as a police sergeant in April 2025.
According to the criminal affidavit, police said more than 13 gigabytes of data was deleted as Moran was in the process of leaving Ferguson Township for a job at Logan Township.
He was instructed via email to preserve "any and all documents that are pertinent" to the department's operations, certifications and contracted services while preparing to leave, court records state.
Ferguson Township's information technology department was able to recover a backup of Moran's server space, but they were unable to recover deleted emails, which caused "significant hardship" for the department, court documents state.
In a written statement to investigators, Moran said he backed up the relevant files on external hard drives and other transferable media. No one from the township reached out to him to access the information and, if they had, Moran claimed he would have been able to walk them through being able to access the documents.
Moran claimed the deleted data was a "misunderstanding," according to the affidavit.
Reading from a statement during Thursday's board meeting, Patterson said Logan Township is aware of the charges filed against Moran, who has kept township Manager Tim Brown and the board of supervisors informed of his legal issues from the beginning.
Patterson said Moran "has done a great job" in his first 15 months as the township's police chief.
"The board of supervisors in Logan Township has the utmost confidence in Chief Moran and unanimously supports him," Patterson said. "Based on the charge and the Confidence in Law Enforcement Act, Chief Moran has been suspended without pay until this matter is resolved."
Magisterial District Judge Casey McClain released Moran without requiring him to post bail, pending his appearance at future court hearings. Moran waived his preliminary hearing and his formal arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 16.
Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.