Posted on 01/25/2004 3:22:27 PM PST by Stew Padasso
Ex-Dallas officer jailed in drug case
E. Texas troopers find 100 pounds of marijuana in his car
January 23, 2004, Friday SECOND EDITION
A former Dallas police narcotics officer was in an East Texas jail Thursday after being stopped with 100 pounds of marijuana and about 2.2 pounds of cocaine in his car trunk, authorities said.
State troopers pulled over Terrance A. King, 39, after he passed too close to an emergency vehicle on Interstate 30 in New Boston, about 25 miles west of Texarkana.
Mr. King, who is now a police officer in Memphis, Tenn., displayed a Dallas police badge and Memphis badge and told troopers that he was working off-duty, said Lisa Block, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman. "Troopers observed signs of nervousness, mood swings and conflicting travel plans," she said. "We don't have any information to believe that he was carrying these illegal substances, the drugs, as part of his employment."
In the trunk of Mr. King's car, troopers found two suitcases and a duffel bag packed with bricks of marijuana, Ms. Block said. They also found bricks of cocaine stuffed in the spare-tire compartment and a pistol. The drugs were worth $ 200,000, Ms. Block said.
Mr. King joined the Dallas Police Department in 1991, said Sgt. Gil Cerda, a Dallas police spokesman. Department records show that he was an officer in the southeast patrol division and a senior corporal in the narcotics unit before quitting the department in 1999.
Details about his internal affairs record or why he left Dallas were unavailable. After leaving, Mr. King joined the Memphis Police Department, where he has been a patrol officer since late 1999.
Mr. King was taken to the Bowie County Jail and charged with possession of a controlled substance, according to the DPS. A Memphis police spokeswoman said she could not confirm whether Mr. King was transporting the drugs as part of police business. Mr. King could not be reached for comment. The Commercial Appeal in Memphis contributed to this report.
Could well be. MPD cops aren't drug tested after they get out of the academy, per a MPD police union demand. A lot of 'em are stoned on the job, and several of the MPD beatings that have now wound up in federal court are said to have been the result of steroid use by the cops.
And most are used to having any of their *little problems* covered up by their fellow cops. Which yon Terrence figured he could get away with either in his previous Texas or home in Memphis. Or it could as well be that he figured someone higher up would cover for him, too.
Anyway, the hundred-pound shortage oughta slow down the *catering* deliveries for a while. Until next weekend, or so.
-archy-/-
Unfortunately for them, the constant supply they had been getting from the MPD property room has been shut off, at least until the feds find anyone on the MPD they can trust to run it again.
Meanwhile, at least 4 MPD cops have been fired, and others charged, in several federal cases involving MPD beatings, including an Oriental grocer beaten in his own store, filmed by security cameras, and a former Memphis schoolteacher beaten in his apartment while handcuffed, videotaped by an neighbor from an upstairs apartmenty. Now facing somewhere around 20 million dollars in just civil penalties in those cases- including one in which the victim died- racketeering charges that could see the department designated as a *violent criminal gang* are also possible, not to mention the federal charges that carry mandatory sentences without the possibility of parole.
Surely as a cop, he knew his "rights", so why did he let them search his vehicle?
Nervousness, indeed, carrying badges for both Memphis and Dallas at the same time, and he did in fact refuse a voluntary search. So they did call for their department's drug dog, which alerted on the trunk area of Terrence's Lexus, giving the Texas cops their probable cause.
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