Retired Ferndale Cop Gets 71 Months in Prison on Sex Conviction

Thomas Cupples, a former Ferndale Police officer and sergeant, was convicted Thursday in Oakland County Circuit Court of molesting a girl under 16 and sentenced to 71 months to 15 years behind bars.

According to a report in today's Daily Tribune,  Assistant Prosecutor Jason Pernick  called  Cupples “a man of great evil" before asking Oakland Circuit Chief Judge Nanci Grant to depart from minimum sentencing guidelines.

Cupples , a resident of Oxford, was a Ferndale police officer from 1978 to 1996 and a sergeant from 1996 to his retirement in 2005, Ferndale police chief Tim Collins confirmed via email on May 9.

"This is not anything anyone would have guessed that worked here," Collins told Ferndale Patch.

According to court records, Cupples was accused of sexually assaulting a girl from June 2008 to September 2008 when she was under 13, and again from June 2010 to July 2010 when she was under 16.

According to the Daily Tribune, Cupples was charged with two counts of first-degree sexual conduct but a jury reduced the charges earlier this month to second-degree criminal sexual conduct.