Posted on 09/08/2001 3:56:21 AM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Above the Law?
Part 1 - Lawmen on trial
An extensive internal affairs investigation of former sheriff's deputies Glendell Edison and Jim Sanders paints a picture of alleged corruption like no other in the history of Collier County law enforcement.
By BRIGID O'MALLEY
Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part series, based on more than 3,000 pages of Collier County sheriff's reports, court records and interviews.
They were bullies, drug dealers and extortionists, and they used their badges as their power, investigators say.
One was a chest-thumping "my way or the highway" Collier County sheriff's captain, Jim Sanders, who is accused of thwarting deputies from making drug arrests in Immokalee and making money by protecting criminals.
The other was a street-smart sheriff's sergeant, Glendell Edison, who logged more complaints against him than any other officer in Sheriff's Office history, taking advantage of the "untouchable" status laid on him by his close friend, the captain. Investigators say Edison sold drugs, used his uniform to gain sexual favors, ran betting games and collected payoffs from Haitian immigrants.
More than 3,000 pages from internal affairs files on the two men tell a story of corruption like no other in the history of Collier County law enforcement. The records show a string of alleged crimes and possible improprieties that led to so much paperwork and so many interviews that internal affairs investigators had to move to a satellite office for privacy - and for space.
Sanders, a 22-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office who led the 400-member road patrol force from 1993 to 1998, and Edison, an 18-year veteran who spent most of his time as a law officer in Immokalee and at the sheriff's juvenile boot camp, were partners in crime, investigators say.
Three years ago, Sanders and Edison became the prime targets of sheriff's internal affairs investigators who then shared their information with local and federal prosecutors. The investigators spent long hours in Immokalee and at state prisons in the delicate and deliberate coaxing of people with information. Their work brought about state criminal charges and a seven-count federal indictment on extortion and cocaine distribution charges.
The 51-year-old Sanders and the 45-year-old Edison could each spend several decades in prison if convicted in federal court early next year.
Glendell Edison hurries to avoid the media as he heads to his arraignment hearing at the federal courthouse in Fort Myers after being indicted on extortion and cocaine charges. Edison, along with fellow former Collier sheriff's deputy Jim Sanders, is scheduled to go on trial in January on charges the pair used their positions as law enforcement officers for nearly two decades to run criminal operations in Collier County. Edison is clutching a Bible.
Their names, careers and reputations - Edison's as "the dirty cop" and Sanders' as his intimidating "protector"- were synonymous for nearly 20 years.
The Edison-Sanders relationship was well-known.
The people of Immokalee knew. Other deputies had heard the stories. Top sheriff's administrators, including Sheriff Don Hunter, had seen their names in internal affairs files since the early 1980s.
"It became the source of legend," one investigator writes.
The early years
The men came to Immokalee along similar paths - ones that started in the South and ended up in Southwest Florida.
Sanders was born in Selma, N.C., a 3-square-mile railroad junction town southeast of Raleigh.
He was part of Future Farmers of America, played football and baseball in high school and worked at several construction jobs before moving to Collier County. His mother-in-law was ill and so to be closer to her, he moved to Immokalee in 1975.
He joined the Sheriff's Office in 1977 as a patrol deputy under then-Sheriff Aubrey Rogers.
Edison was born Glenn Zell Edison, in Albany, Ga., in 1955. His father was a 22-year-old farmer and his mother a 19-year-old housewife when he was born in the heart of Georgia's plantation country, known as the "Quail Capital of the World." His family moved to Collier County when he was a youngster.
He graduated from Immokalee High, winning a ribbon for his participation in the high school band and snagging Player of the Year in 1973 while a member of the football team.
After graduating from high school, he worked several construction jobs. He married twice, the first time just befo
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