UPDATE: This article has been edited and corrected to reflect that it was BPD Investigator Brenda Bittle who spoke with McCullough. It was initially posted that BPD Officer Jeffrey Tate spoke with McCullough. Other than Tate’s conversation with the supervisor of the nursing facility, the court information did not specify which investigating officers spoke to staff members.
A parole officer is facing a felony charge after allegedly threatening employees of a local nursing facility and saying he would “blow the place up.”
Independence County Circuit Court documents say Corey Richard McCullough, 33, entered The Springs on White Drive in Batesville June 8 to assist in moving his wife from her office after her termination at the facility.
According to the court information, multiple employees heard McCullough become agitated, making comments such as “y’all are going to hear from my attorney,” and “y’all better not go anywhere, we’re gonna talk before I leave.”
And as he stopped at his wife’s now-former supervisor’s office, the court info alleges McCullough said: “I’m going to blow this place wide open,” and “I’ll be back, I know all the door codes.”
Two other staff members told Batesville Police that McCullough made statements to them, as well. The arrest affidavit says a nurse at The Springs told authorities about receiving a phone call that day from McCullough who allegedly said to her, “You better not have anything to do with this,” and when she denied his accusation, the nurse told authorities that McCullough said, “Well, you’re next.”
The other staff member told authorities that before his statement about the door codes, McCullough looked at the staffer in the supervisor’s office and told him, “he would bust him wide open,” the affidavit alleges. The staffer also told police that McCullough said he would be back and “take care” of the supervisor and that “she was going to get hurt,” according to the arrest affidavit.
When BPD Investigator Brenda Bittle spoke to the suspect later that afternoon to obtain his side of the story, McCullough was read his Miranda Rights, the affidavit says. The court info notes McCullough told Bittle that on the final trip out of the building with his wife’s belongings, he called out to her supervisor a “few times,” but “she ignored him, so he raised his voice so she could hear.” McCullough then told Bittle he attempted to explain to the supervisor how much his wife had given to the facility, but was asked to leave, the affidavit says.
When Bittle asked McCullough if he had anything else to say, the affidavit notes she was told by McCullough that he “did tell them that he knew the codes to the doors and that they needed to change them.” After Bittle asked McCullough about comments regarding “blowing the building up,” she reported that McCullough told her, “if he did say anything else, he didn’t mean it and that he did not remember it.”
Authorities issued an arrest warrant for McCullough on one felony charge of terroristic threatening. Authorities say McCullough turned himself in on June 10 and was released after posting his $10,000 bond.
Court documents note McCullough was put on administrative leave from his job as a parole officer until the investigation was complete.
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