This Week’s Corrupt
Cops Stories
It’s judges gone wild! Plus sticky-fingered narcs, lying narcs, crooked
deputies, and more! Let’s get to it:
In Philadelphia, a Philadelphia police
officer was arrested May 23for stealing drugs and money from a
suspected drug dealer. Officer Jeffrey Walker was arrested after an FBI sting
operation in which agents recorded him bragging about how easy it was to rip
off drug dealers. Walker and a federal informant concocted a scheme to plant
cocaine in a suspect’s car, then rob him. Walker did just that, arresting the
suspect, then entering his home and stealing $15,000. He was
arrested with the cash in hand. At last report, Walker was
still in federal custody.
In
Pittsburgh, a former Washington
County judge was arrested May 24 on charges he stole cocaine
from evidence in cases over which he presided. Paul Pozonsky abruptly resigned
from the bench in 2012 and moved to Alaska after police checked evidence
envelopes and found the cocaine had gone missing. Court officers said that
Pozonsky had begun asking them to bring confiscated drugs into the courtroom,
where they would be entered as evidence and kept by either the judge himself of
members of his staff.
In Des Moines, an Iowa state narcotics
agent was arrested May 26 on charges he forged the signature of
a Polk County judge in a bid to shortcut an after-the-fact
approval of a drug-related search warrant. Jonathan Borg, 39, allegedly forged
the judge’s signature as he returned with the warrant after conducting a search
in a drug investigation where the charges have now been dropped because of his
actions. He is charged with one count of felonious misconduct in office and is
looking at up to five years in prison if convicted.
In Belleville, Illinois, a St. Clair county judge
was arrested last Friday in relation to the cocaine overdose
death of another St. Clair county judge while the pair partied together at a
hunting lodge in March. Judge Michael Cook, 43, who presided over the county’s
drug court, was charged by federal prosecutors with possession of heroin and
possession of a firearm while illegally using controlled substances. His
colleague, Judge Joe Christ died of a cocaine overdose. A St. Clair County
probation officer, James Fogarty, has been charged with selling cocaine to both
judges. Judge Cook had handled more than 500 criminal cases
since 2010; now, those found guilty can come back and seek new trials.
In Baltimore, a Baltimore police
officer was arrested last Friday on multiple charges, including
trying to sell heroin. Officer Ashley Roane, 25, went down in a sting
operation, accepting cash payments and providing protection for a man she
thought was a drug dealer, but who was actually an informant for Baltimore
police and the FBI. She agreed to access law enforcement databases listing
informants and other sensitive information for the drug dealer, and
provided Social
Security numbers to him as part of a scheme to obtain
false tax
refunds, prosecutors said. She’s looking at a mandatory
minimum 17 years in federal prison if convicted on all counts.
In New York City, an NYPD officer was
convicted last Wednesday for faking paperwork to cover up his
involvement in the unlawful search and arrest of two men. Isaias Alicea had
stopped and arrested two men in Harlem last year and later falsely told his
supervisors he saw them in a drug transaction. But surveillance images showed
no transaction occurred and the charges against the men were dropped. He was
convicted of official misconduct, a felony, and will be fired based on that felony
conviction. Sentencing is set for next month.
In San Antonio, five Hidalgo County
narcotics officers pleaded guilty last Wednesday to federal
charges in a wide-ranging drug conspiracy. The five, all members of now-defunct
drug task force called the Panama Unit, including the son of the county
sheriff, acknowledged roles in a scheme to steal drug loads from street-level
dealers and sell them to a man alleged to be a local trafficker. Jonathan
Trevino a 29-year-old former Mission police officer and the son of Hidalgo
County Sheriff Lupe Trevino, pleaded guilty to one count of drug conspiracy.
Three other members of the unit, including ex-Hidalgo County Sheriff’s deputies
Salvador Joel Aguello, Claudio Alberto Mata, and Eric Michael Alacantar, also
entered guilty pleas. The fifth man, Gerardo Mendoza Duran, is a former
Hidalgo County Sheriff’s deputy but was not assigned to the Panama Unit. He
admitted last Wednesday that he had aided and abetted the group’s plans to
escort the drug loads. They’re all looking at 10 years to life in federal
prison.
In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the former commander of
the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force agreed to plead guilty last Friday to
stealing at least $125,000 from drug proceeds seized by the unit. Jeff Snyder,
55, embezzled money that the task force seized between June 2010 and June 2012,
according to a release from U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance’s office.
Snyder admitted to pocketing seized cash during drug raids and failing to log
it into task force ledger books and deposit it in task force bank accounts. In
his plea agreement, Snyder and prosecutors agreed to an 18 month federal prison
sentence. That agreement has yet to be approved by a judge.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2013/jun/05/weeks_corrupt_cops_stories
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