ROME, Ga. – Federal authorities say a 39-year-old Buchanan man has pleaded not guilty to charges he ran a chop shop and obstructed an investigation while working as a Polk County police detective.
U.S. Attorney Sally Yates says Mark Howell Sparks was granted a $10,000 bond on Thursday.
Yates says Sparks worked for the Polk County department from August 2008 October 2009. She says the FBI was using a confidential informant to investigate stolen vehicle activity in the county and that Sparks encouraged the informant to report the activities of only one target of the investigation.
She says Sparks allegedly possessed vehicles and vehicle parts with altered, obliterated and removed identification numbers.