Topeka ? A former Topeka police officer faces sentencing in September after pleading no contest to 50 felony counts of taking money intended for undercover drug buys.

Thomas Pfortmiller, a 14-year veteran of the Topeka Police Department, took more than $20,000 in department money, claiming it would be used to buy drugs, Shawnee County Assistant Dist. Atty. Steven Karrer said.

Pfortmiller, 40, was placed on leave and later resigned in 2004 after the department asked the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to look into cases he had handled.

He was charged with 100 felony and misdemeanor counts, including misuse of public funds, theft, perjury, forgery and official misconduct.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the district attorney’s office are continuing to investigate.

“What we have been discovering is very disconcerting,” Dist. Atty. Robert Hecht said Friday.

“Nothing is more critical to the criminal justice system than the assurance, both as to fact, as well as perception, that it is a system of integrity and that the community be assured that the investigative process has integrity,” Hecht said in a statement. “We suspect fundamental change will be necessary to assure confidence in that integrity.”

Karrer said during a plea hearing Friday that Pfortmiller filed police reports claiming that drug purchases had occurred, which led to the issuing of false arrest warrants.

The plea agreement reduced the 100 felony and misdemeanor charges that Pfortmiller faced to 50 felony charges, including 17 counts of perjury, 11 counts of theft of more than $500 but less than $25,000, 11 counts of forgery and 11 counts of official misconduct.