This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

A Utah DHS agent gets nailed for using a snitch to sell seized bath salts, an Iowa deputy heads to prison for stealing dope from the evidence room and breaking into pharmacies to get more, and more. Let's get to it:

In Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a retired Manitowoc County sheriff's lieutenant was arrested on November 7 for taking drug forfeiture funds and "drug buy" money for his own personal use. David Remiker is charged with official misconduct for improperly accounting for those funds. Remiker went down after he got stealing a seat cover from an event. Because he led the metro drug unit, the sheriff told him there would be an audit of funds, prompting Remiker to say he needed to put money back in those accounts, which the sheriff did not let him do. An audit revealed that thousands of dollars of asset forfeiture funds were not accounted for. In all, nearly $20,000 has vanished. 

In Washington, DC, a DC corrections officer was arrested on November 19 along with inmates and others in a conspiracy to smuggle contraband into the DC Jail. Corrections Officer Rashaad Roper, 45, is one of five people charged with providing or possessing contraband in a prison, as well as conspiring to do so. Prosecutors allege a conspiracy to provide a knife, drugs, and cell phones to inmates in the DC jail as they awaited trial for murder and assault with intent to kill while armed. Roper would take containers full of contraband from the outside co-conspirators and deliver them inside. Roper went after jail investigators intercepted a bag dropped off for him and found two containers filled with a switchblade knife, a cellphone, a phone charger, marijuana, tobacco, rolling papers, gambling dice, and a hundred cigarettes. When investigators then swept the cells of the suspected inside co-conspirators, they found more contraband, including 269 pills containing synthetic cannabinoids, 255 buprenorphine strips, 60 cigarettes dipped in an unknown substance, three cell phones, and six cigarettes.

In Bryan, Ohio, a guard at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio was arrested on November 22 after being caught bringing drugs into the jail. Guard Thomas Logan, 41, was still a probationary Correctional Officer after joining the staff in March. He is charged with illegal conveyance of drugs in a detention facility. 

In Hammonton, New Jersey, a Hammonton police sergeant was arrested on November 29 for allegedly stealing drugs from the evidence room he supervised. Sgt. Robert Zbikowski, 45, went down after he failed a drug test in February and officers then did an inventory of the evidence room. Nine evidence bags containing confirmed or suspected methamphetamine were missing. Surveillance of the evidence room then showed Zbikowski tampering with two more evidence bags containing meth, and he was charged with official misconduct for allegedly taking the meth and oxycodone. He got the oxycodone charge after State Police matched his DNA with a sample found on an evidence bag containing oxycodone. He also faces counts of theft by unlawful taking, along with fourth-degree counts of tampering with evidence and obstruction.

In Salt Lake City, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent was arrested last Friday for allegedly using an informant to sell synthetic drugs known as bath salts that had been previously seized. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent David Cole went down after the informant's attorney went to authorities to complain that two DHS agents compelled him to engage in repeated sales of the bath salts, to the tune of around $300,000. The two agents would sell him an ounce a week for $5,0000. The second agent has not yet been charged. During searches of the two agents' homes, investigators seized more than $67,000 in cash, an unspecified quantity of apparent bath salts and other evidence. Cole and the second agent had their Homeland Security investigation credentials suspended but have not been fired. 

In Sioux City, Iowa, a former Plymouth County sheriff's deputy was sentenced on November 9 to 15 years in prison for stealing drugs from the evidence room and breaking into at least two pharmacies to steal opioid pain medications, including more than 1,600 pills found at his home. Aaron Leusink pleaded guilty in July to two counts each of second-degree burglary, three counts of fifth-degree theft, and single counts of third-degree burglary, felonious misconduct while in office, unlawful possession of prescription drugs, and fourth-degree theft. He also entered an Alford plea to one count of third-degree burglary. Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, and the judge enters a finding of guilty into the record.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, a former Stillwater state prison guard was sentenced on November 17 to just over two years in prison for teaming up with an inmate to smuggle methamphetamine into the prison in 2022. Former guard Faith Rose Gratz, 26, developed a romantic relationship with a prisoner serving a murder sentence and conspired with him to run a drug operation at the prison. Gratz brough meth into the prison and the prisoner would distribute it to other inmates. She also warned him about upcoming searches of inmates’ cells so he could hide his phone and drugs to avoid detection. Gratz went down after prison officers found the prisoner's cellphone, which contained hundreds of text messages about their conspiracy and their romantic relationship. When officers confronted Gratz at work, they then found a half pound of meth under the back seat of her car. 

In Providence, Rhode Island, a now former state prison guard was sentenced on November 19 to six months in federal prison and two years of home detention for smuggling drugs into the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility. Kaii Almeida-Falcones pleaded guilty to providing contraband to an inmate, He went down after an inmate got caught with a package of drugs he had smuggled in and drugs were found in another inmate's cell. Almeida-Falcones was seen on Wyatt Detention security video entering each of the detainee's cells the evening before.

In Columbus, Ohio, a former Columbus Police narcotics officer was sentenced on December 3 to more than five years in prison for his role in a fentanyl distribution conspiracy. John Kotchkoski, 33, was arrested along with another Columbus narcotics officer, Marco Merino, on fentanyl conspiracy charges in September 2021 after they agreed to transport drugs in an FBI sting. Kotchkoski remained jailed after he allegedly threatened to have Merino's family killed if he testified against him. He pleaded guilty in 2022 and agreed to forfeit $500,00 in cash, firearms, and several vehicles including a Cadillac Escalade and a Corvette. Merino pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute more than eight kilograms of fentanyl and accepting bribes to protect the transportation of cocaine. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.