The Covington County Drug Task Force on Thursday charged a former Andalusia police officer with chemical endangerment of a child and failure to report chemical endangerment of a child. The officer had been terminated last week.

Andalusia Police Chief Paul Hudson said as soon as the APD learned of a DTF investigation at the home of Officer Brian Baxley, an internal investigation was conducted and Baxley was immediately placed on administrative leave. Hudson said Baxley was terminated last week after a due process hearing determined he had violated department policies.

“The APD will not tolerate its officers participating in illegal or unethical behavior,” Chief Hudson said. “As soon as we learned of the investigation, we began to take steps to ensure that our policies and procedures for dealing with situations like this one were maintained. Officer Baxley was terminated before the DTF filed charges against him.”

Baxley was arrested Thursday, and his total bond was set at $253,000. His wife, Mary Elizabeth Baxley, also was charged with chemical endangerment of a child, possession of marijuana II, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Her total bond was set at $2,500.

Hudson expressed his appreciation to the Drug Task Force for working the criminal investigation.

“The investigation was handled professionally and without bias, regardless of Baxley’s affiliation with law enforcement,” Hudson said.