DALLAS — A former Dallas police officer accused in the department’s fake drug scandal has been found guilty of tampering with evidence.
Jeffrey Haywood was sentenced to two years’ probation following the guilty verdict Friday night.
Prosecutors say Haywood lied in a police report by saying he field-tested a substance believed to be cocaine when it was seized in May 2001. The substance turned out to be pool chalk mixed with a tiny amount of cocaine.
Defense attorneys told jurors that even a small amount of cocaine would show a positive result.
Haywood left the Dallas Police Department to become an air marshal when he was indicted.
He is the second officer convicted in the scandal, in which more than two-dozen people were falsely arrested after paid Dallas police informants planted what was said to be drugs. Many of those arrested were Hispanic immigrants and were sentenced to jail.
Former officer Mark Delapaz was convicted in connection with the scandal. Delapaz was convicted of lying to a judge while obtaining a search warrant and of stealing money while working as a narcotics officer.
Cases are pending against two other officers.
An investigation blamed poor supervision for the fake-drug
scandal. Numerous policies have been changed since then.
http://www.khou.com/news/state/stories/khou070519_tnt_dallascop.84f8acb2.html
Elderly couple saved from burning house by N.C. rookie!!
When rookie Stallings Police Officer John McHan heard about a nearby porch fire, he stopped by to see if he could help direct traffic.
He ended up saving lives.
McHan was the first to arrive at the house on Blackberry Lane in Union County Friday night. Flames were shooting through the roof. Nobody was outside.
“That was the strangest thing: I didn’t see anyone anywhere,” McHan recalled. “Usually people are standing outside, crying. So I just ran in there.”
He found an elderly couple in their kitchen, filling Tupperware containers with water and throwing it at the ceiling. By then, the house was filled with smoke, McHan said, and they were both coughing and gagging.
McHan tried to persuade the couple to leave. He finally got the woman out, but only after she insisted he round up her two Jack Russell terriers.
By then, a neighbor who was also a Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s officer saw what was happening and arrived to help. He and McHan went back in the house to get the man, 78-year-old Lawrence Mallery. As they were leading him out, Mallery collapsed; they dragged him the rest of the way.
Mallery was in cardiac arrest, McHan said. He had no pulse.
McHan ran to his car.
Six months ago, with the help of some local women who donated a homemade quilt, the tiny Stallings police department raised enough money to buy 10 portable defibrillators — enough to put one in every patrol car, including McHan’s.
The electric jolt from the laptop-sized machine, coupled with CPR, helped restart Mallery’s heart. Mallery was in good condition at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte Sunday night.
“It was a good thing because it was another eight minutes before anyone got there with oxygen,” McHan said. “It all started when these quilting ladies donated that quilt. After that, other businesses got involved.”
Two years ago, at age 59, McHan left real estate to become a police officer after his son, a Monroe police officer, suggested his father go through basic law enforcement training with him.
McHan said he hasn’t looked back.
“It’s not as much money,” he said, “but it’s so much more rewarding.”
God bless Officer McHan, and all of our brave, hardworking police officers!
Fraternal Order of Police and Easter Seals Celebrate 27 Years of Helping Children and Adults with Disabilities Across America!
Helping children and adults with disabilities live better lives is at the heart of Easter Seals’ mission, and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), an Easter Seals National Corporate Partner, has helped raise funds for 27 years to support the more than one million people with disabilities and their families served by Easter Seals annually. As a result of this long-standing relationship, the FOP’s support for Easter Seals exceeds $13 million in dollars raised and services provided, which has made a difference in the lives of the children and adults with disabilities served by Easter Seals in communities throughout the country.
ARRESTED — CHARGED — CONVICTED!!!
I don’t understand how pool chalk mixed with COCAINE is a fake-drug, but anyway he was arrested (by police), charged, and convicted.
So what?