Police officer is indicted in drug case

[Rick Dean]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stor...ed+in+drug+case

My gut feeling says this is a negro.

Police officer is indicted in drug case
By Peter Shinkle
Of the Post-Dispatch
06/08/2004

Veteran St. Louis police Officer Reginald A. Williams was indicted Tuesday on charges that he concocted a bogus drug arrest against a man even as the officer himself was trafficking in crack cocaine.

Williams also lied to a prosecutor about how much crack cocaine another dru
defendant possessed, the case in U.S. District Court claims.

He is charged with two counts of deprivation of civil rights, three counts of obstruction of justice, one count of making a false statem
ent to a government official and one count of possessing crack cocaine
with intent to distribute it.

The maximum penalty for conviction on all charges would be 82 years in prison and fines of more than $2 million, prosecutors said.

Williams, 43, will plead not guilty and intends to fight the charges, said his attorney, Scott Rosenblum.

Rosenblum said his client was aware for months that a case was being built against him. "Now that he's been indicted, we look forward to presenting his case to a jury," the lawyer said.

U.S. Attorney James Martin said in a prepared statement: "The vast majority of St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers are excellent law enforcement officers who carry out their duty with great integrity. That is why it is imperative that
this office vigorously prosecute any criminal conduct by a police officer who crosses the line."

The indictment claims that on Aug. 14, 2001, Williams falsely arrested Curtis Brown-Bey for s
econd-degree drug trafficking. It went on to say that "in truth and in fact, Curtis Brown-Bey neither traffick
ed in, nor possessed, cocaine base on said date."

On the same day, Williams possessed five grams or more of crack cocaine with intent to distribute it, the indictment alleges.

A month later, on Sept. 13, 2001, Williams falsely testified to the state Board of Probation and Parole that Brown-Bey had possessed crack cocaine on Aug. 14, the indictment alleges.

Then, in May 2002, Williams made false statements to an assistant U.S. attorney supervising a grand jury here in claiming that Brown-Bey and another defendant possessed crack cocaine on Aug. 14, the indictment says.

He also lied about yet another criminal defendant, saying she possessed "only 30.64 grams
" of crack on Aug. 14, the indictment claims, thus obstructing justice.

Assistant U.S. attorney Donald Wilkerson, who is handling the case, declined to comment on the charges or explain
why Williams might seek to implicate some defendants or alter the amount of drugs of another defendant.

Brown-Bey was not formally charged as a
result of the arrest described in the indictment, court records show. However, he does have a prior criminal record.

In 1996, Brown-Bey was charged with possessing crack cocaine, and prosecutors charged him as a persistent offender, pointing to his earlier convictions for receiving stolen property and second-degree burglary.

Brown-Bey pleaded guilty to the crack possession charge and was given a suspended imposition of sentence. After he was found to have violated parole, St. Louis Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson sentenced him in 1997 to seven years in prison. He apparently was released sometime before the Aug. 14, 2001 arrest.

The police depar
tment said Tuesday that it had suspended Williams, who has been on the force since January 1990. He appeared in federal court in St. Louis and was released on personal recognizance.

 

[Brewski]

UPDATE: St. Louis Post-Dispatch 9/16/05: Ex-city policeman gets 6 1/2 years

Former St. Louis police Officer Reginald A. Williams was sentenced Friday to 6 1/2 years in prison for falsely claiming he found drugs on two men in 2001 and preparing a bogus police report about it.

Reginald A. Williams

Williams, called a "renegade cop" by prosecutors, sent an innocent man to prison in the 2001 arrest, while his report meant the guilty went free, prosecutor David Rosen said in urging a stiff sentence. Williams made other bogus arrests in which he stole money from his victims and even ran up a bill on an arre

sted man's cell phone, Rosen said.

Defense attorney Craig Kessler urged probation, saying Williams helpe
d children by coaching them in boxing and fighting crime. "He's an officer who went back to where he came from and worked the streets to clean up his neighborhood."

:rotfl:

U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry told Williams that while he may acted from a "misguided sense of justice," believing the men were drug dealers, he ignored the Constitution, which aims at "protecting citizens from government abuse."
Advertisement

Williams, 44, of the 1300 block of Blackstone Avenue, declined to make a statement in court.

A jury convicted Williams in April on three counts of obstruction of justice and one of making a false statement to a federal prosecutor. He was acquitted of t
wo c
ounts of violation of civil rights and one count of possessing crack with intent to distribute it.

Dianna Williams, the defendant's wife, said her husband was prosecuted because he had complained that the Police Department's process for selecting sergeants is biased against African-Americans. "It's clearly
a political power issue that we will win on appeal," she said.

Niggers never pass up an opportunity to blame whitey, do they?

Rosen, an assistant U.S. attorney, said, "There is clear-cut evidence of his involvement in the crime, and that's what this case is based upon."

--------------------------

Originally posted by Rick Dean
My gut feeling says this is a negro.

Negritude confirmed, 1.3 years later! Good call, Rick - wherever you are! ::