Law
Enforcement:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
6/16/06
Three bad apples from North Carolina, a former Minnesota cop dealing powder, a Connecticut cop passing on favors, another Border Patrol officer goes down, and so does yet another prison guard. Let's get to it: In Connecticut, a former Vernon police officer has copped a plea in a case where he was accused of using law enforcement databases to pass information about drug investigations on to his former girlfriend and her family, who in turn passed it on to the targets of the investigations. Former officer John Troland, a seven-year veteran of the force, pled guilty last Friday to one count of computer crime and one count of interfering with a police officer and faces up to two years in prison. Prosecutors claimed Troland's misdeeds led to one assault on a snitch and to police targets dumping their drugs to avoid arrest. In Florida, a US Border Patrol officer was arrested June 7 on a single charge of marijuana distribution. Thomas Henderson, 45, of Macclenny, allegedly arranged marijuana transactions over the phone, quoting prices, and arranging a deal there. He faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The government wants to seize his house, too. In Minnesota, a former St. Paul police officer was charged last Friday with possessing 22 pounds of cocaine and 13 pounds of methamphetamine with intent to distribute after he tried to pick up a package without proper ID at the Minneapolis Greyhound Bus terminal two days earlier. Suspicious Greyhound employees notified police and took down the man's license plate number. When the police opened the package, they found the drugs. Former St. Paul police officer Clemmie Tucker, 55, turned himself in later the same day. Tucker is currently out on $25,000 bail. In Montana, a former Montana State Prison guard was sentenced last Friday to three years and one month in state prison for trying to smuggle marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine into the joint. Michael Short, 50, was arrested in July 2005 after two sting operations where he agreed to smuggle drugs into the prison for money. Short pleaded guilty to attempted possession with intent to distribute marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine, as well as being a drug user in possession of a firearm. The state also seized his pickup truck. In North Carolina, three former Robeson County deputies who worked the Sheriff's Office Drug Enforcement Division were arrested last Friday on racketeering and theft charges. Roger Hugh Taylor, 39, Charles Thomas Strickland, 39, and Steven Ray Lovin, 36, all of Lumberton, are accused by federal prosecutors of engaging in a criminal conspiracy for nearly decade involving arson, assault, theft of public funds, drug dealing, and money laundering, and were indicted two days earlier. According to the indictment, the crooked cops used marijuana to pay an arsonist, stole thousands of dollars from suspected drug dealers in traffic stops, and provided drugs to a DEA snitch. Robeson County District Attorney told the Fayetteville Online between 200 and 300 cases were dismissed because of the deputies' involvement and at least one innocent man had been convicted and imprisoned because of their actions.
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