michigan city police officer indicted

Federal grand jury hands down 17 counts against police veteran

By GWEN O'BRIEN
Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- Twenty-four years to the day since Donald Webb Sr. became a sworn Michigan City officer, a federal grand jury handed down a 17-count indictment against him, including charges of dealing cocaine and marijuana and extorting money from drug dealers.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Webb at his Michigan City home Thursday morning.

The U.S. attorney's office held a news conference Thursday afternoon in the federal courthouse in South Bend to announce the indictments, which were handed down Wednesday.

The four most serious charges include conspiracy to distribute and distribution of marijuana and cocaine. Each of those counts carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a $1,000,000 fine.

Webb allegedly received shipments of marijuana from Mexico and El Paso, Texas, and used his position to obtain a better price for the marijuana. Webb allegedly also bought cocaine from an El Paso supplier. He is accused of distributing the drugs in and around Michigan City.

According to the indictment, Webb was assigned to a drug task force in 1995. As part of his assignment, he obtained names of drug dealers and allegedly solicited money from them with the understanding that he would not arrest or pursue them.

The indictment also states that Webb would provide drug traffickers with information on investigations, undercover officers and informants.

"This is a sad day for me, as chief of police, my department and the community we serve. However, no one is above the law," Michigan City Police Chief Eugene Simmons said at the news conference. "We took a corrupt officer off the street today, and our community is a safer place."

Up until his arrest, Webb was still working as an officer. His last day on the job was Tuesday; he was taken into custody at his apartment. Simmons said he suspended Webb on Thursday.

"I can suspend an officer up to five days and recommend the termination of the officer to the Michigan City Civil Service Commission," Simmons said.

Michigan City police began investigating Webb in the late 1990s after the department received many complaints about Webb's activities. By 1999, the department turned the case over to the FBI. Indiana State Police assisted.

Webb appeared before a federal magistrate Thursday in Hammond. The government requested that Webb be detained until his trial. A detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in South Bend.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Schmid, who will try the case, indicated the case is strong, with many witnesses to support it. Yet, Schmid is hoping more people will come forward with information.

Anyone with information that could help the investigation into Webb's alleged activities is urged to call Indiana State Police at (800) 552-8917 or (219) 696-6242.

According to The Times of Northwest Indiana, another Michigan City officer, Detective Ricky Anderson, quit his job in July after news articles indicated he supplied Lake County Auditor Peter Benjamin with drugs in exchange for prostitutes.

Anderson turned government witness, and Benjamin was indicted by federal officials in June. Anderson allegedly received drugs from another Michigan City officer, according to the Times.

When asked late Thursday whether that officer was Webb, Michigan City assistant police chief John Hudson said, "As of right now, we are not aware of any connection."

Special to The Charlotte Observer

As most Libertarians agree, the best way to win the so-called war on drugs is to end it once and for all. Not partially, but completely. As long as there are any drugs that are illegal, there will be people willing to risk prison in order to profit from them as well as use them.

It's a classic no-win situation.

You would think that someone would've paid attention to that old adage about being doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past if we don't learn from them and draw a correlation between the current drug war and alcohol Prohibition. But, for a non-Libertarian politician to apply a little common sense to this multibillion dollar-a-year fiasco would be political suicide.

In what has become a war on people and the Bill of Rights, millions of nonviolent high school and college kids have had their lives shattered by prison sentences that are not at all proportional to their "crimes."

Ironically, many of these "criminals" were caught doing the very things that politicians have been accused of, and even admitted, doing. In the 2000 presidential campaign, both George W. Bush and Al Gore decreed that the punishment for doing what many believe they themselves did should be a minimum of 10 years in prison. Former Libertarian presidential candidate Harry Browne wanted to ask both Bush and Gore, "Would your lives have been better had you spent 10 years in a federal prison for your youthful indiscretions?"

The debate over the war on drugs has people firmly entrenched on both sides of the issue. Some people believe it is no business of our government if they want to partake in moderate drug use, not unlike smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, in their homes after a hard day at work. If they don't hurt anyone else or break any laws then they should be left alone. By contrast, I'm sure families who have lost members to drug overdoses would like to see all drugs destroyed.

But when are people going to start being held accountable for their own actions? Yes, drug addiction, like alcoholism, is a disease. But unlike cancer, it is 100 percent preventable. If the inflicted person had chosen to not start abusing drugs in the first place, there would be no problem. But there are always people who are going to be addicted to something and willing to risk their very lives for some sort of "high."

Suppose that every drug in existence were legalized tomorrow. Would people still die of overdoses? Absolutely. Would children still try drugs? Sure. But how would that be any different than what goes on now?

For starters, legalizing drugs would remove the criminal element much the same way that ending Prohibition cleaned up our streets of gangs fighting over territories. These thugs would not be able to compete with pharmaceutical companies that produce affordable, safe, nontoxic drugs.

There will always be crime, but legalizing drugs would remove the black market and allocate resources to fight violent crime instead of being used to go after people who may harm themselves but are no threat to us.

Our own government has used the drug war to check out bank accounts, perform strip-searches at airports, monitor e-mail and even take property without even charging a crime because of asset forfeiture laws that state that property, unlike people, is not innocent until proven guilty.

If you give a police officer the OK to search your car, he can disassemble it completely and does not have to put it back together. Think about that the next time someone's argument is, "Well, if you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry about?"

Drug use is a moral decision, and you cannot legislate morality. When people break the law, whether on drugs or not, they should be prosecuted. Otherwise they should be left alone if they aren't hurting anyone else. Making drug use illegal is wrong. Legalizing drugs would solve more problems than are caused by this insane war.

Danny Brooks

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