Posted on 11/29/2006 7:54:46 AM PST by SmithL
GREENEVILLE - When those prison doors clang shut behind this dirty cop, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer wants the good guys to hear something else - praise.
The way Greer sees it, the two-year prison term he doled out Tuesday for the former second highest-ranking law enforcer in Cocke County is as much a tribute to the good cop as it is an indictment of the bad.
"Very simply put, Mr. (Patrick Allen) Taylor, a message needs to be sent," Greer told the former Cocke County Sheriff's Department chief deputy at his sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court.
"Honorable_law enforcement officers who uphold the law every day and lay their lives on the line every day deserve our respect and our honor every day," Greer said. "Those who violate the very law they are sworn to uphold deserve swift and certain punishment."
Greer smacked Taylor with a sentence for a plot to fence stolen NASCAR stuff that was double what the federal system's mathematical sentencing grid called for and quadruple what a U.S. Probation Office report opined he should have faced.
Citing his belief that Taylor's list of actual crimes was much wider in scope than proven by agents in the FBI's Operation Rose Thorn corruption probe in Cocke County, Greer said Taylor not only tarnished his own badge but corrupted others.
The judge noted that he had presided over at least a half dozen Rose Thorn cases involving lawmen in Cocke County and Newport. The five-year probe has resulted in more than 170 criminal charges and the arrests of at least eight lawmen.
"You were the second highest law enforcement officer in Cocke County," Greer said. "You also had a position that required you to set the example for other officers. I can come to no other conclusion than corruption at the top leads to corruption within the ranks. Your conduct encouraged a lack of respect for the law."
Taylor was the top cop to be ensnared in the FBI's corruption-seeking net, although court records have indicated that authorities also targeted his uncle and, at the time, his boss, then-Sheriff D.C. Ramsey.
Ramsey resigned his post when news of his placement on the corruption hit list was revealed in court records.
The case against Taylor involved thousands of dollars worth of NASCAR souvenir merchandise that he intended to peddle from a fruit stand he operated. Taylor thought the loot was stolen and that he was getting it for a steal himself - at a rate of 10 cents on the dollar. The seller, it turns out, was an undercover law enforcer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Smith told Greer at Tuesday's hearing that Taylor regularly fenced stolen loot. Smith also accused the ex-lawman of all manner of corruption, including crimes involving "narcotics, illegal gambling, alcohol violations, possibly even civil-rights violations."
"Mr. Taylor's presence in the sheriff's department in Cocke County was (akin to) bringing a poison, a cancer into an organism," Smith said. "It affected even those law enforcement officers who wanted to do the right thing."
Big talk for a prosecutor with no proof to back it up, countered defense attorney David B. Hill.
"There's no proof Mr. Taylor did anything to force (other officers) into engaging in any criminal conduct," Hill argued. "I think it's a case where the government is trying to say the chief was involved in a lot more than he actually was involved in."
Greer sided with Smith.
"The suggestion of other criminal activities fills this record," Greer said. "I subscribe to the theory where there's smoke, there's fire."
Taylor, whose wife and a handful of other relatives were on hand for Tuesday's hearing, apologized to his family and Greer. He also offered up a conciliatory message for the citizens he was hired to protect and serve.
"I'd especially like to say I am sorry to all the citizens of Cocke County," he said. "I pray I will be forgiven for my actions. I just want to put this behind me and get on with my life."
Greer is allowing Taylor to report to prison on his own - provided he obeys the law and doesn't bother any witnesses in the corruption probe.
"Any conduct that could be construed as retaliatory will be viewed as a violation of federal law," the judge said.
Greer also ordered Taylor to spend three years on supervised release, the federal equivalent of probation, after his prison term is finished. The ex-lawman will never again wear a badge or hold public office.
"You shall not hold any position of public trust," Greer ordered.
The corruption probe targeting Cocke County and unearthing allegations ranging from cockfighting to cocaine peddling to racketeering has bloodied the reputation of a tightly-knit mountain community that has labored for years under the weight of a label of lawlessness many argue is unfairly stitched onto the fabric of this rural enclave.
Smith himself, as chief prosecutor of Cocke County's corrupt cops, offered up a defense of the innocent in this scarred community, contending that although law enforcers like Taylor made it easy for good officers to go bad, few did.
"They looked to the top and saw this culture, this atmosphere of corruption in their department (that was) almost expected," Smith said. "Luckily, only a few (succumbed to it)."
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