....thwarting the evil plans hidden behind the dastardly War On Drugs.
Posted on 01/25/2004 5:32:47 PM PST by archy
Officer charged in Texas drug haul
By Tom Bailey Jr.
January 24, 2004
A brand-new traffic law in Texas led to drug charg es Friday against a Memphis police officer.
Terrance A. King, who patrols on the 5 p.m.-to-1 a.m. shift for the North Precinct, was released on $50,000 bond Friday morning from the Bi-State Justice Center Jail in Texarkana, Texas.
The 39-year-old officer was charged Friday in state court with possession of 100 pounds of marijuana and possession of 2.2 pounds of cocaine.
The arrest started with a Texas traffic law that took effect Sept. 1:
If you pass an emergency vehicle stopped on the road or shoulder, you must move over one lane if you can, or slow to at least 20 mph under the speed limit.
The new law is designed to curb the number of officers and emergency workers hit by passing cars, said Lt. Russ Couch of the Texas Department of Public Safety's narcotics office.
Trooper Barry Washington had stopped another driver for a traffic violation on Interstate 30 about 25 miles west of Texarkana early Wednesday, Texas Highway Patrol Capt. Audra Livingston said.
King passed the trooper at 12:50 a.m., driving east in a 1995 gold Lexus 400.
The speed limit was 70 mph and King "just drove right next to the troopers that were stopped," Couch said.
Washington pursued King and stopped him.
King's behavior - nervous and moody - made Washington suspicious, Couch said.
When Washington asked King where he'd been and where he was heading, King gave inconsistent answers, Couch said.
King has been a Memphis officer since 1999. He was a Dallas police officer from 1991 to 1999. "That's a good sign of nervousness right there," Couch said.
Suspicious, Washington asked if he could search the car. King said no.
So Washington called in one of the patrol's drug-sniffing Labrador retrievers.
Without touching the Lexus, the dog sniffed around and alerted officers by scratching or barking, Livingston said.
That gave troopers probable cause to search.
They found the marijuana and cocaine in the trunk, Couch said.
State prosecutors will take the case to a grand jury.
Memphis police can't say whether King's case has any connection to recent troubles in the department's property room, where drugs seized as evidence were swiped and sold to dealers, spokesman LaTanya Able said.
Since he joined the Memphis department in August 1999, King has accumulated five counts on his disciplinary record, according to his personnel file.
All but one were dismissed for "insufficient evidence" or because the charge wasn't sustained.
But King, who earns about $43,000 a year, received a written reprimand stemming from a May 2001 assault on his wife of 10 years.
She called police from their home, saying King had hit her in the mouth during an argument.
Officers saw the woman's cut and swollen lip and arrested King. He denied he hit her on purpose.
"You are expected to keep your private life unsullied as an example to all," the reprimand states.
King received good marks in a 2002 job evaluation.
His supervisor wrote that King was a hard worker and showed intense interest in his job and in trying to improve.
But the supervisor also wrote that King needed to familiarize himself with city, state and federal laws, and police policies and procedures.
It was unclear Friday what disciplinary action awaits King here while the criminal charges are pending.
- Tom Bailey Jr.: 529-2388
....thwarting the evil plans hidden behind the dastardly War On Drugs.
There've been comparisons between Memphis and Boston before- both around the same size, both river towns, both with their own history of problems, some shared with neighboring communities and some not. And both with some real wild characters, political and otherwise, in their past and present.
I'd suspect that might work to solve the problems in one might not work in the other. But it doesn't look like many of the Memphis-area problems are in any danger of being solved anyway, so no worries.
-archy-/-
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