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Former drug officer convicted on corruption charges

By Joshua Hammann

Associated Press

Last updated 05:13 AM, EST, Friday, February 07, 2003

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A former narcotics detective was convicted Thursday on 21 corruption charges and could face up to 20 years in prison.

Christie Richardson, 36, was originally charged with almost 300 counts including burglary, possession of a forged instrument, tampering with public records and bribing a witness.

Her former partner, Mark Watson, pleaded guilty last week to 299 corruption charges in exchange for a recommended sentence of 20 years.

On Thursday, a jury convicted Richardson on 19 counts of tampering with public records and one count of criminal possession with a forged instrument, all felonies. She was also convicted on a single count of official misconduct, a misdemeanor.

Richardson and her defense attorney, Steve Schroering, quickly left the courtroom without commenting on the verdict.

Richardson was acquitted on all 15 burglary counts. Suspects named on many of the warrants Richardson and her former partner served claimed the detectives stole cash from their homes and planted drugs.

"We believed in the burglaries and we felt there was evidence for the burglaries," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Scott Davis.

The jury deliberated for almost 20 hours over three days. It took Circuit Court Judge Steve Mershon almost an hour to read the jury instructions.

Jurors were to reconvene on Friday for a sentencing recommendation. While Richardson faces up to 20 years, she also could get much less.

Davis, the prosecutor, repeatedly praised the jury for their work after the three-week trial. He said he felt satisfied with 21 guilty counts out of 284 charges.

"Juries are unpredictable," Davis said. "That's why we took the sure thing with Watson."

It was Watson's repeated failure to appear in court while still filing paperwork for court pay that prompted the investigation into the two detectives. Further investigation revealed that Watson created fake cases, took money intended for confidential informants and filed out bogus overtime reports.

He pleaded guilty last week to forging judges' signatures on search warrants, burglary and other charges. Watson, 39, will be sentenced March 24.

"Mark Watson was the lead," Davis said. "There were not as many smoking guns on her (Richardson) as there were on him."

Watson testified against Richardson as part of his plea agreement. On the stand, Watson said that on several occasions Richardson was with him while he typed up search warrants, whited-out the dates on old warrants and photocopied the judge's signature from an old warrant to the new one.

When asked by Schroering if Richardson was aware of this practice, as well as other fraudulent deeds that Watson acknowledged, Watson answered, "I assume so."

Watson said the most common scenario that resulted in a phony warrant involved a confidential informant calling him with a name and a place. Watson would begin typing up a legitimate warrant, he said, but then receive another call from the informant saying he was unsure how long the suspected drug dealer would be at the previous location.

"I did not have time, in my opinion, to get the judge's signature, so we photocopied it and went down and executed the warrant," Watson said. "With most of them, it's a time issue."

From his opening statement through his closing argument, Schroering attempted to separate Richardson from Watson. He characterized Richardson as a rookie to the fast-paced, loosely supervised narcotics squad, who followed the lead of her experienced partner.

Prosecutors argued that the two spent so much time together -- almost every hour of the work week, along with social and free time -- that Richardson had to be aware of the scams.

After Richardson and Watson were arrested in March, prosecutors dismissed about 30 felony cases the two had handled.