HEADLINE: Former trooper: I stole $181,442; Fed drug addiction, he says in guilty plea

A former Kentucky State Police sergeant pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court yesterday to federal charges that he stole $181,442 from a special fund reserved for making drug buys. Louis Podunavac, 42, of Flatwoods, who retired July 16 after state police in Ashland began an investigation, took the money over a four-year period, using a special debit card to make withdrawals in increasingly larger amounts, he told U.S. District Judge David Bunning. Podunavac indicated the money was stolen to feed a prescription-drug addiction. He told Bunning he broke his left ankle in 2002 while working a second job and became addicted to painkillers, including Lortab. "As a result of that, I made some bad decisions," Podunavac told the judge. 

Podunavac waived his right to an indictment by a federal grand jury and pleaded guilty to a theft charge brought by prosecutors. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced March 12, but sentencing guidelines outlined by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Molloy in court yesterday called for a term of 18 to 24 months. That sentence could be increased a few months, based on the guidelines, because records in Boyd Circuit Court indicate Podunavac also pleaded guilty to six counts of obtaining or attempting to obtain controlled substances by fraud. Records show that on five days in July, Podunavac fraudulently called in prescriptions for hydrocodone and Lortab to CVS and Wal-Mart pharmacies, falsely claiming they were authorized by a local doctor. A hearing is scheduled Jan. 17, but court records show Boyd Commonwealth's Attorney Stewart Schneider has recommended that Podunavac's sentence on the state charges run concurrently with his federal sentence. 

After pleading guilty in federal court, Podunavac and his attorney, David Mussetter of Ashland, declined to say whether Podunavac had spent the entire $181,442 on drugs. As part of the plea agreement, he is required to make full restitution to state police. Podunavac became a state trooper in 1987, according to Lt. Phil Crumpton, a spokesman for the agency in Frankfort." I'm not aware of any personnel issues he's had in the past," Crumpton said. Podunavac worked at the Harlan and Morehead posts, but spent most of his career in Ashland. In 1995, he was placed in charge of narcotics investigations in Boyd, Carter, Greenup and Lawrence counties. According to the plea agreement, Podunavac made and supervised undercover purchases of illegal narcotics. He was authorized to withdraw money through the use of a debit card issued to him for use at National City Bank, Flatwoods. That account was funded by state police to provide cash for drug buys and payments to informants." He was the keeper of that card, let us say," Crumpton said. Beginning in May 2003 and continuing through June of this year, Podunavac made 446 debit-card withdrawals. "Much of the funds he ... deposited directly into his own personal bank account within minutes of withdrawal," the plea agreement said. 

In 2003, he converted $16,925 to his own use; in 2004, the amount increased to $35,655; in 2005, he converted $79,032 to his own use and had stolen $49,830 before the investigation began this year. Podunavac retired less than a month after state police in Ashland began investigating the disappearance of drugs from the post's evidence room, Crumpton said. That investigation spawned the federal inquiry, he said. The internal investigation is still open, but state police have installed safeguards to make sure Podunavac's acts are not repeated at other posts, Crumpton said. Among the safeguards was an audit at each state police post, which failed to disclose any other discrepancies, he said. The agency then installed multiple layers of supervisors and logs for officers who handle street-level drug money, said Crumpton, who described Podunavac's actions as "an isolated event." We weren't hiding anything," he said. "I think the public can rest assured if there's a crime committed, whether it's by our own people or not, we will take it seriously." 

Ashland lawyer Michael Curtis, who was not involved in the case, said Podunavac "had a reputation as a good police officer." In fact, it comes as a complete shock. It's unfortunate he had this problem, but, unfortunately, in Eastern Kentucky, it's a problem that's pervasive," he said. Curtis, one of Ashland's top defense attorneys, said Podunavac's guilty pleas would affect pending cases involving his clients in Greenup and Boyd counties "due strictly to evidentiary problems."Crumpton, however, said he was "not aware of any cases it's jeopardizing at this point." 

HEADLINE: Hub police drug probe broadens

Thefts suspected; staff at depository is shifted

All 10 officers working in the Boston Police Department's central drug warehouse have been transferred to other duties, because anticorruption investigators believe that evidence is being stolen, officials said yesterday.

For now, only department auditors and investigators from the Internal Affairs Division who are working on the case will be allowed into the Hyde Park depository, where drugs seized as evidence in thousands of cases are stored until trial.

In another sign that the two-month investigation is broadening, police officials also said they are seeking help from State Police and confirmed for the first time that they believe that drugs have been stolen.

The decision to transfer the personnel -- made by top department officials, including new Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis -- was criticized by a police union official, who said it makes the staff appear guilty of theft.

A police official with knowledge of the probe said Internal Affairs investigators have discovered that drugs that were checked in recent weeks are now missing. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said much of the stolen drugs is OxyContin, a prescription painkiller.

A second police official briefed on the probe said that investigators noticed that many of the missing drugs were involved in cases that had been dismissed or continued without a finding, suggesting that the culprit or culprits may have targeted evidence bags they believed would be overlooked because they were no longer relevant to an active case and were destined to be destroyed.

With that in mind, investigators recently decided to recheck bags they had already looked at since the audit began. When they found newly missing drugs, that allowed them to significantly narrow the pool of potential suspects to employees who have had access to the depository since August, the official said.

Drugs from about 190,000 cases, some dating back 20 years, are in the warehouse. Police have not been able to say when they performed the last audit before August. The investigation began in October after a routine audit, launched in August because drugs were being moved to a more secure space inside the depository, indicated that some drugs were missing.

A police statement issued yesterday said that "findings suggest that evidence tampering is not solely historical, but also current." Police officials declined to comment on the quantity or type of drugs that were missing initially or that have disappeared since August.

Elaine Driscoll, a department spokeswoman, said that no criminal prosecutions will be compromised by the missing drugs, but she declined to elaborate. The department, she said, is working closely with Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office to better protect drug evidence in future.

Driscoll said that 10 employees have been moved and that two other officers who are assigned to the warehouse but are on injury leave will be transferred when they return to work.

"Due diligence requires that we transfer all employees with access to drug evidence," Superintendent in Chief Albert E. Goslin said in the statement. "This step is necessary to both protect the investigative process and ensure the integrity of the current drug evidence. This in no way should be seen as compromising our original intent behind this investigation: to identify the person or persons responsible without compromising the professionalism and honor of others associated with the unit."

Davis met with leaders of the three main police unions at headquarters yesterday to tell them about the turn in the investigation and the personnel transfers.

After the meeting, Lieutenant Joseph Gillespie, president of the Boston Police Superior Officers Federation, said he appreciated the commissioner's outreach, but said it is wrong for Davis to transfer the two supervising officers, particularly Captain Frank Armstrong, who took charge of the warehouse in April and who Gillespie said initially requested the probe after he discovered that the depository was in disarray.

"He led the charge, and he sought an outside expert to train not only himself, but also his entire staff on how to manage evidence," Gillespie said. "They say they have some type of suspicious activity going on there. The problem is painting everybody in that unit with the same brush."

In the department statement, Davis took care to recognize Armstrong's work to "uncover the problem," signaling that he anticipated union opposition to the transfer of Armstrong.

Armstrong has been sent to Hyde Park, where he will work as district captain. Captain Michael Broderick, who had been running the Hyde Park station, has been moved to evidence management and will soon be in charge of the drug evidence warehouse.

Gillespie said he is also surprised that the department would transfer Armstrong, a union representative for the Superior Officers Federation, but not Lieutenant Detective John Fedorchuk, who is conducting the audit, even though he supervised the drug depository in the early 1990s.

"There's an inherent conflict," Gillespie said. "I find it problematic that the former commander has the ability to conduct an audit on his former command, yet the current commander who demanded the audit has to be removed to protect the integrity of the investigation."

Goslin has said that he trusts Fedorchuk as a "very ethical and quality person."

Davis, who was sworn in Monday, has pledged to make officers' integrity one of his biggest priorities, saying he wants honesty "uppermost in the officers' minds."

The department is trying to recover from a series of high-profile corruption scandals, including the July arrest of three officers who are accused of guarding a shipment of what they believed to be 100 kilograms of cocaine.

In July, the Globe reported that 75 officers have failed department drug tests since 1999, including 61 who tested positive for cocaine. In September, a 12-year department veteran resigned after he was charged with extorting sex from a teenage prostitute.

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.

HEADLINE: FORMER OFFICER SENTENCED ON MARIJUANA TAMPERING

Former Troup police officer Samuel "Mark" Turner was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for tampering with marijuana seized as evidence. Turner pleaded guilty to the third-degree felony and testified in trial against the former Troup Police Chief Chester Kennedy.
Turner, 47, was sentenced to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine and was given credit for the nine months he has served in the Smith County Jail since his May arrest. He will be eligible for parole after serving one-fourth of his prison term.

Assistant Smith County District Attorney Joe Murphy said after a thorough investigation by the Smith County Sheriff's Department, it was discovered that Turner took marijuana out of the evidence locker while in uniform and while working as a police officer.

He said the public entrusted Turner to uphold and enforce the law for which the defendant had a total disregard. Murphy asked 114th District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent to sentence Turner to six years in prison and to not grant him probation. Turner tarnished the image of all law enforcement officials and should be held to a higher standard as an officer, he said.

Murphy said that as soon as Turner was caught, the defendant began cooperating with law enforcement, admitted his guilt and testified against Kennedy, who has been found guilty of two felony charges after a bench trial. Murphy said Turner was not as culpable as Kennedy, who was the chief of police.

Defense attorney F.R. "Buck" Files Jr. said his client had a driving while intoxicated arrest 29 years ago but since then had been a hard-working citizen and a good officer until, for whatever reason, he violated the law. He said the difference in the case between Turner and Kennedy was interesting; noting that Kennedy blamed Turner for any wrongdoing, immediately bonded out of jail in May and went to trial instead of admitting his guilt.

He said Turner immediately admitted his guilt and has remained in jail since his arrest. He said his client was on medication for anxiety, depression and for medical issues. Files said Turner was truthful and helpful when he testified in Kennedy's trial.

He said Turner brought shame to his family and to the community and, as a law enforcement officer, he could not be above the law. He said Turner was not the same man who was arrested nine months ago. Files said probation would be appropriate for Turner, who deserved more consideration of a lesser sentence than Kennedy.

Judge Kent said she heavily considered Turner admitting his guilt and cooperating with the state in her sentencing.  Smith County DA Matt Bingham also prosecuted the case while defense attorney Brett Harrison represented Turner along with Files. Turner faced up to 10 years in prison.

KENNEDY GUILTY

Kennedy, 60, was found guilty in November of theft and tampering with physical evidence by Judge Kent but was acquitted of three additional tampering charges.

Kennedy, who was allowed to remain out of jail on bond, will be sentenced by Judge Kent on Dec. 18. He faces two to 10 years in prison on each of the two convictions.

Judge Kent found Kennedy guilty of theft for taking a pistol from the police department and tampering with physical evidence for giving a 30-pack of Natural Light beer that was evidence in a criminal case to Turner, who testified Kennedy allowed him to take the beer home to consume.

Judge Kent found Kennedy not guilty of tampering for allegedly taking a 9 mm rifle from evidence and using it to shoot hogs on his property; and not guilty of tampering for allegedly having in his office a cut-open empty evidence bag from a case in which money and cocaine were seized.  He was also found not guilty of tampering with an auction sales receipt for falsely claiming a seized car was abandoned and selling it.

HEADLINE: Providence police probe $1,790 theft inside station

The money was taken from a robbery victim's handbag left sitting on a detective's desk.  PROVIDENCE - The Providence police Detective Bureau is the place where crimes are solved and injustices are put right. Last year the detectives cleared hundreds of crimes by making an arrest.

But now the police have a mystery in their own house that they have not been able to solve.   Who stole $1,790 from a robbery victim's handbag that had been left sitting on a detective's desk?   It's an embarrassment that the police have not been eager to talk about.  No report of the theft has been available to the public among the other public records in the police records room. But officials acknowledged the incident 
in response to a Providence Journal inquiry.

"Certainly [detectives are] up set. I'm upset," Deputy Police Chief Paul J. Kennedy said. "We are committed to finding out where the money went."   Maj. Stephen Campbell, commander of the Investigative Division, which includes the Detective Bureau, declined comment.  The Detective Bureau is a secure area on the third floor of the municipal Public Safety Complex on Federal Hill, accessible only with a swipe card that opens two sets of doors with electronic locks. Besides police officers, only the clerks and maintenance workers assigned to work there may enter without an escort.

The crime is being investigated by the police Internal Affairs Bureau, and Kennedy said "numerous" officers and civilian employees have been interviewed. Because the investigation is active and more people will be questioned, Kennedy said this week, he would not discuss details of the probe.

Police Department protocol calls for money or any other evidence to be recorded and securely stored in an evidence room. The valuables were not put away for safekeeping in this case, according to the deputy chief, because the handbag and its contents were going to be returned to its owner right away.  Kennedy said no officer or employee has been disciplined in connection with the handling of the money. Asked if there might be discipline in the future, given what is known so far, he declined comment. The episode began on the morning of Oct. 25, when Khamvene Khamsom, 54, of 52 Kimball St., proprietor of Vene Mini Market, 954 Chalkstone Ave., in the Valley neighborhood, reported that two men had mugged her at gunpoint in the parking lot behind the store. One of the men tore her handbag away from her, and they ran, she said.

The police put Khamsom in a cruiser and began looking for the suspects. They found one suspect at a nearby tenement, at 31 Bergen St., where the brown handbag had been dropped on the sidewalk. Inside the handbag, according to the police, was $3,000 in currency, checks for deposit, a checkbook and other items.

While officers were outside the tenement, someone dropped a black nylon bag out of a second-floor window that allegedly contained five bags of marijuana and $474 in currency. The police went inside and arrested Shaking Lovett, 22, who lives at 31 Bergen. Lovett was charged with possession of marijuana and the first-degree robbery of Khamsom.

The police took the handbag back to the Detective Bureau for fingerprinting and other processing. After they were done, Kennedy related, a detective telephoned Khamsom to let her know that she could come in to pick up her valuables.  At some point the detective who had the handbag left it unattended atop his desk "for a short period of time," and when he returned, he realized that $1,790 of the $3,000 had been taken, according to Kennedy. The deputy chief declined to name the detective.  "Just before she got there, they realized that there was money missing from the purse," Kennedy said.

"He [the detective] then notified his superiors, and it was at that point that Internal Affairs was notified..."   "Everyone's been fully cooperative with the investigation," he said. "We're still hopeful that we'll come to a successful conclusion as to finding out where the money went."

Several days after the mugging Khamsom finally got back her cash and checks, the police took $1,790 from the department general fund to replace the missing sum.

HEADLINE: Ex-police officer pleads guilty

BYLINE: TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Link to Article

He took marijuana from evidence room in Henrico County

A former Henrico County police officer pleaded guilty to distributing marijuana that he took from the department's evidence room before retiring in February.

Charles M. Harpster, 51, who served 30 years with Henrico police, and his wife, Tammy, 32, entered guilty pleas Wednesday in Henrico General District Court for distributing less than 1 ounce of marijuana. Both were given 12-month suspended jail terms and fined $100.

An accompanying charge of obtaining drugs by fraud was withdrawn by Assistant Chesterfield Commonwealth's Attorney Jim O'Connell, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case. Harpster and his wife were originally charged with felony drug distribution, but the charge was amended Wednesday to a misdemeanor distributing offense.

Harpster also agreed to surrender his law-enforcement credentials and not to serve as a police officer for at least 10 years, O'Connell said. He and his wife spent about two weeks behind bars in late September before being released on bond.

The drugs involved were stolen from the Henrico Division of Police evidence room around the same time that Harpster, then a narcotics investigator, was finalizing his retirement, said Henrico Police Chief Henry W. Stanley Jr.

In August 2005, Harpster checked out a package of marijuana from the police evidence room that had been confiscated in a narcotics case he had developed. The case had already been adjudicated, Stanley said, and Harpster was preparing the paperwork to have the marijuana destroyed.

After checking out the evidence, Harpster took the package -- which contained several smaller bags of drug evidence to a police briefing room for inspection, Stanley said. It was at that point that Harpster took some marijuana out of one of the smaller bags before resealing the evidence and returning it.

"We feel like it was a little more than an ounce, but I can't tell you for sure," Stanley said. "Marijuana dries while it's in storage, and you lose a very small percentage" of weight when that occurs. "Even with that, it was a very small percentage of the total that was missing."

Fortunately, Stanley said, the department's checks and balances worked in this case, and the theft was caught as a result of an internal audit.

"The evidence room was not compromised," Stanley said, "and that's what really, really concerned me."

But Stanley said the incident made him realize that "even with all the safeguards we've got in place, somebody could come up with something that you haven't thought about."

The chief said the department conducts random audits of the evidence room, but additional audits are performed when officers resign or retire.

"That's because you've got to have all that [evidence] cleared out, from the standpoint of what are we going to do if the case is still being investigated -- so all that evidence is preserved," Stanley said.

After removing the marijuana, Harpster gave some of it to his wife, authorities said. The couple were detained Sept. 15 while vacationing in Alaska. They were brought back to Henrico on Sept. 28 and charged.

HEADLINE: Former Plum police officer sentenced for mailing seized gun

A former police officer has been sentenced to one year of probation for attempting to mail a seized handgun back to its owner. In July 2005, former Plum police Sgt. Andrew McNelis III, 36, pleaded guilty to sending the gun through the mail, after prosecutors dropped a more serious charge of possessing a stolen firearm.  Prosecutors said McNelis in March 2002 tried to mail a Colt .45, which was seized during a May 2000 domestic dispute, back to its owner. McNelis said he found the gun, which was missing from the evidence room, in his desk and feared someone was trying to frame him. Instead of reporting the find, McNelis said he decided to mail the gun back to its owner." That cowardice and poor choice has affected my family and friends," he told U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster on Friday. "I let fear guide my actions and not common sense."

HEADLINE: State Police clear local officers in loss of $31,000 

A 'mistake' may lead to Reprimand

An investigation by State Police has found that two Somerville police. Officers who threw out a desk as part of a storage room cleanup in May didn't know the drawers were filled with more than $31,000 in seized cash.

Detective Lieutenant Stephen M. O'Reilly concluded that the officers acted "Inadvertently."  He wrote in a report to his supervisors that he is confident that the officers didn't take the money and that they don't have information that anyone else pocketed it.  The findings were presented to aldermen last month.

The desk, which was sitting on its side in a storage room, had been set up as overflow storage space for seized evidence from 45 criminal cases. It had been used to store evidence and found property, including gold jewelry and wallets, since 2005 because the main evidence room was so full officers couldn't get in the door anymore. O'Reilly was told by several people he interviewed in his investigation that the evidence had been cataloged and the cash had been put into white envelopes.

Acting Police Chief Robert Bradley declined to name the officers who threw out the desk, but said they both passed lie detector tests. One was a retired officer brought in on a part-time basis to help with the reorganization project and the other was a full-time officer. H said the full-time officer may face a reprimand, such as a note in his file. "I'm not looking at anything severe," Bradley said. "They were pitching in trying to get avery dirty, nasty job done and in their haste made a bad mistake, but that's all it was- a mistake."

The Middlesex district attorney's office, which prosecutes Somerville's criminal cases, said none has been jeopardized by the money being thrown out.  But the city has paid nearly $4,000 for claims filed by crime victims and suspects to whom the cash belonged.

Another two claims are pending, including one for gold jewelry the owner estimates was worth $20,075. The city s disputing the value. Officers told O'Reilly, the investigating officer, that the desk drawer where the money and jewelry were stored did not lock. The desk was leaning on its side, surrounded by boxes, when the officers determined it was broken  furniture  that could be thrown out. The evidence officer who had stored the money in  the  desk was not working the day it was thrown away. Bradley said he didn't know money and jewelry were being stored in a desk drawer. The Department of Public Works picked up the desk and other items and took them to a Waste Management Industries transfer station on McGrath Highway.

The desk was then hauled to a landfill in Rochester, N.H., where Somerville officials learned the next day it was under 20 feet of compacted trash.  Bradley said the department is still in the process of cleaning up its storage rooms. He said that evidence is now stored in a vault and tighter procedures have been implemented for throwing out items. Alderman Walter Pero said he was satisfied with the findings of the investigation, in part because it was conducted by an independent agency. Findings were presented to aldermen last month.Tom Champion, a spokesman for Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, said the mayor "thinks the whole episode was unfortunate, but he's satisfied that it was accidental."

HEADLINE: Ex-La Salle sheriff, deputy face charges

LAREDO -- The disappearance of 2 kilos of cocaine from a La Salle County evidence room remains unsolved, but during the course of its investigation a grand jury found enough evidence to return related indictments on a former sheriff and deputy. On Nov. 27, former La Salle County Sheriff Robbie Thomas was indicted on one count of aggravated perjury, and former Deputy Joseph Canales was indicted on one count of tampering with evidence. They each face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Details were few in the indictments, but they painted a basic picture of the incident that landed the two law officers in trouble. Canales destroyed some marijuana on May 3 with the intent of making it unavailable as evidence in legal proceedings, the indictment states. According to Thomas' indictment, he lied to the grand jury about having knowledge of the May 3 "burn," referring to the marijuana that Canales allegedly destroyed. Thomas "failed to indicate that he indeed had been given this information by his deputies," the indictment states. The alleged false statement was made on Aug. 21 to the grand jury during its investigation into missing cocaine. Thomas said he learned the drugs were missing from the department's evidence room in February but did not tell anyone for months. That prompted the investigation by the FBI, Texas Rangers and the district attorney's office into how evidence is handled for the department.

District Attorney Rene Peña said it was "a probability" that another grand jury would take up the missing cocaine case "This by no means has gone away," he said. Canales, a deputy for more than 20 years, turned himself in on Nov. 29 and posted bond that same day. For much of his career, Canales was the La Salle deputy assigned to a Drug Enforcement Administration task force in Laredo, current Sheriff Victor Villarreal said. Canales retired after the investigation began because Thomas wanted to replace him on the task force, resulting in a large pay cut. Villarreal has been in contact with Thomas, who moved to Wisconsin shortly after retiring as sheriff in September after two decades with the department. Thomas stated he would return to Cotulla to turn himself in this week, Villarreal said. 

Thomas and Canales could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but Villarreal said he talked with them and both were surprised by the indictments and intended to fight the charges. "It brings me no pleasure to arrest people that I considered friends, but it is part of the job," Villarreal said. "This is obviously not one of the best chapters in La Salle County's history, but hopefully, now that this is moving on toward district court, we can see the end of this part of the story happening soon." "I'm basically speechless on the issue," La Salle County Judge Joel Rodriguez said. He pointed to new cameras in a new evidence room that provide more accountability. mcastillo@express-news.net

HEADLINE: Two ex-officers plead guilty in Henry drug-selling ring;

Sheriff's office was at center of racketeering operation, officials say

Two former officers with the Henry County sheriff's department pleaded guilty yesterday to participating in a drug-selling ring that prosecutors say involved the sheriff and numerous deputies. Deputy David Allan King, formerly head of the department's vice unit, and former sergeant James Alden Vaught, whose confession to investigators allegedly implicated the sheriff and 12 officers, entered guilty pleas in U.S. District Court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said the coming weeks may see more guilty pleas as the corruption scandal that has shocked rural Henry, once the center of the state's textile industry, makes its way through federal court. 

King and Vaught were among 20 people indicted in October after prosecutors alleged that members of the sheriff's department were reselling drugs they had seized from dealers, trafficking in steroids and prescription pills, pilfering firearms from the evidence room and covering up their illicit activities by lying to federal investigators. The indictment named 12 current or former sheriff's officers, plus the sheriff himself, H. Franklin Cassell, who has since resigned. Yesterday, Bruce Welch, Vaught's attorney, said Vaught agreed to plead guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy because he has "a contrite heart." "He knows what he did, and he's sorry for having done it," Welch said. 

An investigation into the department began last year when federal agents intercepted a 2-kilogram package of ketamine - an anesthetic used recreationally and sometimes as a date-rape drug - at a Martinsville house owned by Vaught. The dealer who used the house to receive drugs, William Randall Reed, pleaded guilty last month to racketeering conspiracy and acknowledged paying Vaught in drugs and money to use the house as a drop-off point. Vaught agreed to cooperate with federal investigators and secretly recorded more than 90 conversations with 25 people, said Bondurant, who added that Vaught is now receiving federal protection. "He's the one who talked first. 

There's no doubt that he was right in the middle of it and very actively involved." Bondurant said members of the department sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of illegal drugs, either stolen from the evidence room or ordered online. As part of a plea agreement, Bondurant dropped one charge against Vaught, who faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 when he is sentenced. King pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute steroids and ketamine. He faces up to 40 years in prison and a fine of $1.25 million when he is sentenced. Cassell has pleaded not guilty to all five charges against him: two counts of obstructing justice, money laundering, making a false statement, and misprison, or unprofessional conduct.

Contact staff writer Rex Bowman at rbowman@timesdispatch.com or (540) 333-3612.