HOUSTON -- Felony indictments were filed against two career Houston police officers, accused in a police union money scandal uncovered by Local 2 Investigates last year.

Ronny Martin, the former secretary at the Houston Police Officers' Union, is charged with two counts of aggregate theft by a public servant and one count of misapplication of fiduciary property.

The fired union treasurer, Jeff Larson, who was relieved of duty from his HPD job, is charged with one felony count of misapplication.

"It is a very sad thing that officers would sacrifice both their career and reputations to misuse their positions of trust," said Gary Blankenship, who took over as HPOU president after the alleged wrongdoing first surfaced.

In November, Local 2 Investigates first reported that union cash was missing, credit card charges were raising suspicion, and two union-owned cars had been sold to friends of both officers and the money was unaccounted for.

After several months of hearing testimony, a Harris County grand jury indicted both men on charges of benefiting from those transactions.

Harris County District Attorney Ken Magidson declined to specify the transactions at the heart of the charges. He said, "The defendants are accused of engaging in a criminal scheme that misappropriated cash, checks, credit cards, and vehicles totaling more than $100,000 from the Houston Police Officers' Union organization board of directors."

Martin has denied any wrongdoing, and he had previously provided Local 2 Investigates with a bank deposit document that he claimed would account for some of the money that was listed as unaccounted for.

Larson's wife contacted Local 2 after earlier broadcasts, saying her husband did nothing wrong.

Blankenship said, "It is time for Ronny Martin and Jeff Larson to accept responsibility for their misdeeds and to return the funds that they misappropriated from the union."

He said a new "five-tiered" accounting system of safeguards is now in place to avoid any future misspending of union money, which comes from deductions out of thousands of member officers' paychecks. He said the union may sue the two former leaders in civil court to recover the money.

"Not only is it embarrassing to us, it makes me personally mad. It makes every member of this board of directors mad that these people would violate that trust," said Blankenship.

Magidson said, "It's the trust that was engendered by police officers who put money into their union and wanted to make sure that the money is being used for appropriate union dealings and not for anybody's personal use."

He declined to say whether either man testified before the grand jury.

Bond was set at $250,000 for each veteran officer, an amount that is tied to the value of the money they are accused of stealing. Assistant District Attorney Donna Goode said she would not entertain the notion of lowering that bond until both men have surrendered to jail.