Drug War Issues
Michigan gives us two spectacularly egregious cases of corrupt policing, one of which included prosecutors and a judge, and we throw in the obligatory greedy jail guards. Let's get to it:
Prohibition's filthy lucre is hard for some to resist. (Image via Wikimedia)
In Lansing, Michigan, two Michigan State Police lieutenants were arrested February 23 on a slew of corruption charges accusing them of running a criminal enterprise from the Monroe state police narcotics investigation office. Lts. Luke Davis, 48, and Emmanuel Riopelle, 42, are accused of systematically embezzling money and property seized from suspects between March 2006 and December 2008. In a search of Davis's home that month, police found drugs and stolen property, including Vicodin, Oxycontin, steroids, a wall covered with a large quantity of men's and women's jewelry, 30 designer purses, 22 cell phones, computers, televisions, motorcycles, and a golf cart, among other items. The scheme blew apart after a complaint from a suspect that Davis stole personal property from his home. The following investigation showed that the pair developed a slick scheme to embezzle property through fraudulent auction sales. The items would later be resold. Davis faces 24 counts including 13 counts of embezzlement, five counts of misconduct in office, three counts of possession of a controlled substance, one count of conducting a criminal enterprise, one count of forgery, and one count of use tax violation. Riopelle faces 11 counts, including four counts of misconduct in office, three counts of forgery, three counts of embezzlement, and one count of conducting a criminal enterprise. Both face well over a hundred years in prison.
In New Iberia, Louisiana, an Iberia Parish Sheriff's deputy was arrested Monday on charges he intended to smuggle marijuana into the Iberia Parish Jail. Deputy Richard Coons, 23, was busted on a tip and caught with marijuana by narcotics agents. He is charged with malfeasance in office and possession of Schedule I narcotics with the intent to distribute. He was booked into his place of work and at last report was still there.
In Spartanburg, South Carolina, a Spartanburg County Detention Center guard was arrested and fired February 24 for smuggling contraband drugs into the jail. Officer Thomas Brown, 42, went down after narcotics officers got a tip that he was supplying pills to inmates. He is charged with possession of prescription drugs without a prescription, carrying contraband into the jail, and possession of marijuana.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
police are people too !
man the authorities are tough on "criminal type cops; gosh; they are only people;! give them a break ! imo ! a.
When the law itself is corrupt
...This sort of corruption is inevitable. We cannot afford to keep this abominable travesty in force.
Stop. The. Drug. War.
re;police are people,too!
yes,police are people,too...but,sentencing should be more severe for them because they are in a position of trust and power.often times penalties are much lighter for corrupt officials;even when committing serious felony offences.punishment for these priviledged people seems to be insufficient at best; they are the law after all. they should be held to the same standard as everyone else and indeed a higher standard when abuse of position involved.
In reply to re;police are people,too! by j.j.g. (not verified)
Have you looked at the
Have you looked at the sentencing for criminals period? So give an officer who lied to protect an informant should get more time then someone who molests, rapes and kills babies/children. Really? Let your children or grandchildren be raped or molested and tell us all how that works out for you when they just get probation, or let go on a technicality, or the jury didn't feel there was enough evidence or they have a really good, awesome lawyer who was able to get them off with little to nothing. Let us know how that works out for you should that happen. Lets talk about all the false complaints against the police by citizens who hate the police because they cant seem to stay out of trouble so they figure they will take the light off of their crimes and cause problems for the police hoping to have their charges dropped. Yeah, it happens all day everyday! Lets be outraged with them. The corrupt police will be weeded out, however, because of those "privileged" criminals they have more rights than officers. Now that's a bitch!
Lol, love that, will not see
Lol, love that, will not see a day in prison. Well guess what, that officer should NEVER have been charged! What makes him corrupt, protecting an informant? Give me a break! You all are obviously on one mission and one mission only and that is to discredit the wrong officers at any cost! I could see if they started a criminal enterprise themselves and started selling the drugs, but protecting someone from the dope man who he just snitched on is commendable and if that meant pleading to charges brought down from bullshit charges to some more bullshit charges is worth it! My hats off to them! The dope man lost 47 kilos of cocaine, do you think that informant would have survived? Nope!
Lets do an investigation of the people who made and work for this site and lets look into their lives and the lies they have told! Don't say you have never lied because that would be a lie! Come on, put your life out on front street. You do a good job of bashing the lives of people you don't know and only read articles on. lol.......men who beat and kill their wives or pedophiles who molest and rape children see less time than someone who fights, tortures and kills dogs and way less time then most drug dealers. If you want to be outraged about something, be upset with that.
So what drugs do you want legalized? All drugs or just weed? Do you smoke weed? Do you partake in taking other drugs? Have you lied or ever sold drugs? Have you ever been convicted of a crime? I call for a government investigation of the people who run and work on this site. Then we can splash all the media information about it all over the net!
Add new comment