State troopers running Oxycontin rings, problem ex-cops running Oxycontin rings, and another conviction in the infamous Dallas "pool chalk" scandal. Let's get to it:
In Boston, a Massachusetts State Trooper was arrested May 15 on charges he ran an Oxycontin trafficking and extortion ring. Trooper Mark Lemieux, who had a long career arresting drug traffickers, was himself arrested along with a former state trooper, Joseph Catanese, and two other people, including Lemieux's girlfriend. Lemieux had been assigned to the Bristol County Drug Force, but that didn't stop him from allegedly arranging with a drug dealer to let his girlfriend courier Oxycontin from Florida to Massachusetts. Lemieux and company went down after the dealer got busted and turned state's evidence. He had been a snitch for Lemieux, but now he has snitched on him.
In London, Kentucky, a former local police officer was arrested May 18 on drug sales charges. Brad Nighbert, the son of state Department of Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert, was an officer for the Williamsburg police for seven years. Things began to go downhill for him when he crashed his cruiser into a woman's car while on duty in 2006, and drug tests showed he had consumed oxycodone and cocaine. As the town board met to consider firing him for that, he resigned. He was later arrested on drug possession and other charges in that incident. While awaiting a September court date on those charges, Nighbert managed to get stopped for acting suspicious in the parking lot of a night club where a stabbing had occurred. Police found 14 Oxycontin pills and $32,000 in cash in his vehicle, and, after obtaining a search warrant, another $3,000 in cash, 57 methadone tablets, and ledgers. He is now charged with trafficking in a controlled substance, possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia, having prescription drugs in an improper container, tampering with evidence, carrying a concealed deadly weapon and impersonating a police officer.
In Dallas, a former Dallas police officer was found guilty in the "pool chalk" scandal last Friday. Former officer Jeffrey Haywood was convicted of lying on a police report by saying he field-tested a substance believed to be cocaine when it was seized in May 2001. The substance turned out to be pool chalk with a trace of cocaine. More than two dozen people, most of the Hispanic immigrants, were arrested, convicted and sent to prison as drug traffickers based on drug seizures that turned out to be pool chalk. Former officer Mark Delapaz has already been convicted in the scandal, and cases are pending against two other officers. Haywood was sentenced to two years probation.