Wartburg, TN (Friday, November 14, 2024) — Former Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA) Agent Travis Buchanan entered a guilty plea in Morgan County Criminal Court earlier today to theft for a several years long scheme of using his state issued card to make gas purchases for personal use. Travis Buchanan had worked as a Wildlife Officer for TWRA for nineteen years covering Morgan County where he lived with his family.
In February of 2023 TWRA officials notified their internal auditor that there appeared to be discrepancies in the amount of gasoline purchased for Buchanan’s TWRA issued Ford F-150 pick-up truck. It was noticed that his gas purchases far exceeded the amounts needed to cover the mileage the truck was known to have traveled relative to the miles per gallon the truck was rated to achieve. The audit department examined records dating as far back as 2008 and confirmed the discrepancies. An internal investigation was begun by TWRA in March of 2023. This led to surveillance of Buchanan in the truck he had been assigned and confirmed that Buchanan appeared to be using a State of Tennessee credit card to purchase more gasoline than his truck would use, given the mileage that was reported by Buchanan.
District Attorney General Russell Johnson predicated the case to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for further investigation. Additional surveillance was conducted that documented repeated trips by Buchanan to a gas station in Morgan County where he was observed pumping gasoline into multiple red five-gallon gas containers in the back of his truck. Buchanan used his state issued credit card to pay for this gasoline. This led to a search warrant being issued for the search of Buchanan’s home where many full red gasoline containers were discovered and seized. Buchanan’s theft scheme of buying gas for personal use on the state issued card was confirmed. Detailed calculations were made, and the case was presented to the Morgan County Grand Jury on September 18th, 2023, resulting in an indictment.
As part of today’s guilty plea to the theft charge, Travis Buchanan was sentenced to six years to be served on probation. He was required to make an immediate restitution payment by certified check to TWRA in the amount of $46,000. As a result of the plea Buchanan has forfeited all rights to any pension funds and annuities that accumulated through the state retirement system. The truck that he was driving that had been held as evidence has been released back into the service of TWRA. Buchanan is forever barred from employment with the State of Tennessee.
TWRA Executive Director Jason Maxedon offered the following statement on the case:
“We appreciate the diligent work of District Attorney General Russell Johnson, his staff, the TBI, and TWRA employees who worked this case to its conclusion. It is certainly a sad day when a commissioned law enforcement officer departs from the high standards of conduct they were sworn to uphold.”
District Attorney General Russell Johnson stated that the “TWRA worked diligently to verify the misconduct on the part of this officer who abused the trust that the Agency placed in him for so many years. It is a shame that someone would ruin an otherwise respectable
career of lengthy service as a public servant in this manner on such a scheme. We are glad that through this plea immediate restitution was made as part of this plea agreement.“
Assistant District Attorney General Bob Edwards handled the prosecution of this case for General Russell Johnson’s office.