You seen the cover story in the last issue of the Memphis Flyer?
Posted on 01/21/2004 12:43:19 PM PST by archy
Ex-police employee guilty; Stole drugs and cash from evidence room"
By Chris Conley
January 21, 2004
When Kenneth W. Dansberry was running the Memphis police evidence room - and using his position to loot it of drugs and money - he grew so swamped with cash that stacks of it grew mold.
Dansberry, 41, a former Police Department civilian employee, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a wide array of drug conspiracy and money laundering charges.
U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald, who received his guilty plea, called the magnitude of Dansberry's crimes "daunting."
Fifteen alleged co-conspirators and two other property room employees charged in a separate indictment await trial.
Dansberry was the day-to-day supervisor of the property and evidence room from 2000 to last September, when he was charged.
He told investigators he stole cocaine, marijuana and money "so many times (that) I don't remember."
But Dansberry did remember his first deal, describing for investigators how he and another civilian employee peddled a 10-pound box of cocaine to an accused drug dealer off the loading dock under the Shelby County Jail.
He also told police that he wheeled 200 pounds of marijuana out of an evidence room and sold it at the police impound lot near the old International Harvester site.
The drugs were slated to be destroyed, but Dansberry sold them instead.
Flush with cash, Dansberry threw money around.
He allegedly gave two fellow employees $100,000 in hush money. The women have been charged and are awaiting trial.
Dansberry rubbed elbows with the high rollers at the Mike Tyson fight and NBA all-star games. He treated female employees to extravagant shopping sprees at Memphis malls.
Federal and Memphis police vice/narcotics officers interviewed him Sept. 24, 2003. Early the next morning, they searched his car and hiding places in his Cordova home. They found at least $1 million.
"A substantial part of this cash appeared to be encrusted in mold, indicating it had been hidden for a substantial period of time," according to a court document.
Dansberry told police that it all started when he was contacted by a former evidence room employee and friend, Patrick Maxwell, and asked to steal drugs. According to court documents, Maxwell sold the drugs to an alleged drug dealer in Atlanta, identified by authorities as Eric Brown.
Dansberry told police he was aided in his thefts by Carl Johnson, another employee charged in the case.
The thefts continued from sometime in 2000 until Dansberry's arrest, according to the court documents.
Federal agents and Memphis police, alerted to the thefts, last year made surreptitious entries into the Harvester facility at night to document the disappearance of money and drugs.
They found used wrappings for drugs that were supposed to have been burned. They found stashes of drugs. They found records destroyed and computer files deleted. They found empty money wrappers.
Memphis Police Director James Bolden was out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
FBI spokesman George Bolds would say only that the investigation continues and further indictments are possible.
Problems at the property and evidence room were documented by state auditors as early as 1999. At that time, police officials promised to reform the way evidence was kept and safeguarded.
Attempts to reach state auditors Tuesday were unsuccessful.
When Dansberry is sentenced July 23, he faces a hefty prison sentence.
He also has agreed to give up luxury cars he bought with drug money and his Cordova home, for which he laid out a down payment of $50,000 in drug money.
In addition to the Cordova home, federal authorities are seizing properties in Olive Branch and Atlanta. Together, the property is worth about $1.75 million.
Dansberry's prison exposure, however, may be tempered by his pledge to cooperate fully in the prosecution of the others - many of them property room employees and ex-employees - charged in related indictments.
- Chris Conley: 529-2595
Is there any department in the country which hasnt had drugs, guns, etc stolen/missing from its evidence room?
At least send the money offshore and retire in the Caymans. What a dumb@$$.
You seen the cover story in the last issue of the Memphis Flyer?
I am in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, but my wife's parents live in Memphis, so we are in town frequently. It has been fun of late to keep up with the antics of W.W. I am glad that the Memphis city council has from somewhere found the backbone to stand up to Herenton.
He told investigators he stole cocaine, marijuana and money "so many times (that) I don't remember."
But Dansberry did remember his first deal, describing for investigators how he and another civilian employee peddled a 10-pound box of cocaine to an accused drug dealer off the loading dock under the Shelby County Jail.
He also told police that he wheeled 200 pounds of marijuana out of an evidence room and sold it at the police impound lot near the old International Harvester site.
The drugs were slated to be destroyed, but Dansberry sold them instead.
Flush with cash, Dansberry threw money around.
He allegedly gave two fellow employees $100,000 in hush money. The women have been charged and are awaiting trial.
Dansberry rubbed elbows with the high rollers at the Mike Tyson fight and NBA all-star games. He treated female employees to extravagant shopping sprees at Memphis malls.
Federal and Memphis police vice/narcotics officers interviewed him Sept. 24, 2003. Early the next morning, they searched his car and hiding places in his Cordova home. They found at least $1 million.
Care to join me for dinner at the restaurant that distributed the drugs he'd taken in? They deliver!
New Orleans was previously notoriously corrupt, but they at least put a new coat of paint on their previous fading coverups that had cracks leaking through.
But Memphis is now giving the Big Easy a good run for their money as the most corrupt big city police department in the nation. To include previous arrests of several MPD officers, including one of the the mayor's bodyguards, as guards and bagmen for local drug dealers. And maybe more; they never did solve the murder of McNairry County Sheriff Buford Pusser's wife Pauline....
-archy-/-
Sorry, forgot to close the / sarcasm tag :)
Criminalize consensual acts, thus making them highly profitable, and watch corruption soar. It happened during Prohibition, and it's happening again.
And, of course, use your taxpayer-supplied gun, badge and other resources to corner a monopoly on some criminal activities, using the laws to eliminate your competition, while loudly proclaiming your successes at *going after those terrible lawbreakers.*
It happened during Prohibition, and it's happening again.
Indeed. And in some cases, it's the grandsons and granddaughters of some of the original Prohibition criminal profiteers.
-archy-/-
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