HEADLINE:  Officer arrested in gun theft

DATELINE:  ALLEGHENY COUNTY

A Plum police officer was arrested yesterday on charges of theft and receiving stolen property involving a confiscated handgun. The status of Officer Andrew W. McNelis in light of the arrest could not be determined yesterday.

The handgun was found to be missing on March 12, when its owner, Gerald Burch of Plum, appeared at police offices to claim the Colt 45 model 1911 pistol. The gun could not be found on an inventory list nor in an evidence locker with other guns police had confiscated.

Plum and state police subsequently began an investigation. The gun was confiscated from Burch on May 11, 2000. 

Authorities were holding the gun after Burch was served a protection-from-abuse order. It is
standard police practice to confiscate any registered weapon from people served with PFAs.

Burch had since cleared up those legal problems.

HEADLINE: SERGEANT MAY MISS LITTLE WORK DESPITE SUSPENSIONS 

Plum council voted unanimously Monday to suspend police Sgt. Andrew McNelis in the wake of theft charges filed against him by Pennsylvania State Police. But under a quirk in the police union contract, McNelis may not miss any time on the payroll.

McNelis, a 10-year police department veteran, was charged with theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property after a confiscated handgun was found to be missing from a police evidence locker earlier this year.   The gun's disappearance was discovered when the owner, Gerald Burch, came to the police department to claim it.

Mayor John Schmeck suspended McNelis after the charge was filed last week. That suspension expired when council met Monday, and council also voted to suspend McNelis.

Because of the police union contract, McNelis was able to file a grievance over the suspension. The contract allows an officer to return to work immediately if a grievance is filed. McNelis did that after the mayor suspended him and could do it again after council's suspension.

Councilman Dave Vento said he seconded the motion of Councilman Jeff Russo, personnel committee chairman, to suspend McNelis "with a lot of regret." But he could see no alternative in light of the charges, he said.

Council said the suspension would remain in effect until criminal proceedings are finished.

Borough Solicitor Bruce Dice said McNelis can either appeal his suspension with the Plum Civil Service Commission or before an arbitrator.

Councilman Paul Dern Jr. said the current police contract has tied council's hands when it comes to discipline.

"An officer cannot be suspended," he said, no matter the charges, because of the language in the bargaining agreement.

Council President Clem Barbarino agreed.

That will remain in effect until the contract expires at the end of 2003, he said.

But Dice said McNelis returns to his job only until the arbitrator or Civil Service hearing.

"Once he gets to the arbitrator, all bets are off," Dice said.  
 

HEADLINE: Blowing Air Kisses Across A Courtroom For A Bad Cop 

There will come a time, perhaps in the not-so-distant future, when Hillsborough Circuit Judge Ron Ficarrotta will have some poor, hapless schmo standing before him accused of a panoply of charges and facing, say, as much as 120 years in prison.

Maybe the miscreant will have committed a wide range of drug offenses. The defendant will be a disgrace to society, a truly vile human being. And just as Ficarrotta is about to drop a ton of hurt on the lowlife, the chap will interrupt to say something like: "Your Honor, if it please the court, can I have a Madiedo deal?"

Uh-oh.

What then, judge? What do you do with the precedent you established?

Christopher Madiedo, 27, a thug who couldn't cut it as a sheriff's deputy, decided to besmirch a profession men and women have died honoring by turning himself into a drug addict with a badge.

And for that Ficarrotta threw the book at the slob, ordering him to watch soap operas and prune the shrubbery while under house arrest for, uh, two years.

That'll teach him.

Madiedo was staring, appropriately, at some serious prison time after he was charged with 23 felony - FELONY! - counts of impersonating an officer, official misconduct, tampering with evidence and possession of cocaine and marijuana.

And he was a Hillsborough deputy while engaged in all these crimes. Ahem, aren't those the guys supposed to be arresting people for this stuff?

As far back as 1997, a year after he became a deputy, Madiedo began engaging in a pattern of stealing cocaine and marijuana from the department's evidence room. In all, using his position of authority, he signed out 63 evidence envelopes containing drugs from his employer, from the people he was sworn to serve. Indeed, hours after he resigned from the sheriff's office, Madiedo returned in uniform and finagled more drugs from the evidence room. Yes, as you've already concluded, he's a moron, too.

Now, most defendants with a pile of drug charges against them would be so much shrimp on the barbie for judges who certainly want to portray themselves as tough on crime - a position made even easier in this case because, first, the defendant was an oily louse who prostituted his position as an officer and, second, he pleaded GUILTY to the crimes.

Poor Man's Pablo?  For Ficarrotta, this was a bigger slam dunk than Shaquille O'Neal driving the lane against Billy Barty.

But Madiedo had a couple of things going for him as he prepared to go before the judge: a wealthy family who could afford blue-chip lawyers, and a sack of hooey Ficarrotta fell for faster than a Dale Mabry john believing the hooker he just picked up really thinks he's sexy.

At Madiedo's sentencing hearing, his mouthpieces blamed his penchant for stealing evidence and damaging future court cases on bipolar disorder, manic depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after he was shot on duty. He survived that shooting because he was wearing a ballistic vest, probably the only intelligent thing he accomplished as a law enforcement officer.

And thus, Ficarrotta got all "We Are The World" - like and gave Madiedo a Valentine.

But there are problems.  How many other officers get shot at while on duty? How many of them turn into a poor man's Pablo Escobar?

How many other defendants appear before the judge who could make the same claim that, because they're nuts, they should get a blanket, a glass of warm milk and the latest issue of TV Guide instead of hard time? It's true that money talks, and Madiedo and/ or phooey walks.

And if Madiedo had all the mental stability and maturity of Zelda Fitzgerald, why did Sheriff Cal Henderson allow this basket case to wear a badge and carry a gun in the first place?

Finally, shouldn't we hold law enforcement officers to a higher standard, especially when they violate the very laws they take an oath to uphold?  Apparently Chris Madiedo didn't think so. Sadly, he was right - because neither did JUDGE Ron Ficarrotta.

HEADLINE: What were Jeff cops smoking? 

The detectives who arrested Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputy Duane Landry were not at all surprised to find marijuana stuffed into the pack of cigarettes in his pocket. One of them, after all, had helped their supervisor put it there. It had been borrowed from the evidence room.

Detectives no doubt pull this kind of stunt from time to time, although it is rare for them to admit it. In this case, however, Jefferson Parish detectives seem to have regarded it as a standard investigative technique.   Landry had just reported for work at the parish jail in 1998 when he was arrested and fired. He would be charged, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said, with "possession and intention to distribute marijuana, introducing contraband into a correctional facility and malfeasance."

The evidence was so dubious that the DA's office declined to prosecute, and Landry filed suit seeking damages for false arrest and defamation. His suit claims that the "the entire incident was staged by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office for purposes unknown to your petitioner," although this is clearly disingenuous because detectives did have reason to suspect he was running drugs into the slammer.

An inmate called Robert Allen tipped off the officers in charge of the jail, who in turn notified the investigations bureau, detective Sgt. Joseph Williams said in a deposition. Although a jailbird's word is not necessarily his bond, nobody could fault detectives for putting Landry under surveillance.

But detectives were too impatient to wait for Landry to commit a crime. Instead, they recruited Allen to set him up with a pack of Kools.

Williams related in his deposition, "I extracted some of the cigarettes out" and his supervisor "put some of the marijuana obtained from the crime lab inside the pack." The idea, Williams testified, was to make it obvious that the pack had been tampered with and to see how Landry would react.

Allen was let out of jail with instructions to approach Landry on the street outside the jail when he turned up for work and ask him to take the Kools to an inmate named Kenneth Hill. Allen was wired up, and deputies parked the surveillance van nearby and prepared to videotape proceedings.

If investigators had thought to check the duty roster at the jail, they would have realized that this was Landry's day off. Everyone had to come back the next day, and Landry was videotaped chatting with Allen and putting the doctored pack of cigarettes in his pocket before heading for roll call.

Drugs or no drugs, Landry was asking for trouble. Taking an open pack of cigarettes to an inmate is against the rules, but Landry did not want to argue with a former inmate on the street, his attorney Robert Garrity said.

When Landry got inside, detectives were waiting for him and his career as a jailer was over. No contraband apart from the Kools was found on him, two deputies have testified.

The audio tape did not catch any incriminating remarks from Landry and is, in fact, largely unintelligible. Prosecutors cannot have taken long to decide they did not wish to touch the case. Detectives were instructed to arrest Landry before he reached the jailhouse "pod," so there is no proof that Hill was going to get the pack of Kools anyway. So all that work planting evidence was for nothing.

Still, Landry is not exactly above suspicion, at least in the eyes of Jefferson Parish detectives, and taking an open pack of cigarettes into the jail might have been grounds for dismissal anyway, although not for arrest. That wouldn't have got his name in the paper either, and he might well win his suit. He should not, however, count on a major payday.

HEADLINE: Supreme Court: charge against King wrongly dismissed 

DATELINE: CHEYENNE, Wyo.  

The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a district judge erred by dismissing a charge of possessing cocaine against former Fremont County Sheriff David King.  Fremont County Attorney Norman Young said he was considering refiling the charge against King, who stole cocaine from an evidence locker and overdosed during Memorial Day weekend 2000.

King was charged with using cocaine, unlawfully obtaining cocaine and possessing the drug. He surprised prosecutors by pleading guilty to using cocaine and to unlawfully obtaining cocaine. He disputed the charge of possessing cocaine, however, claiming it duplicated the charge of unlawfully obtaining cocaine and violated his right not to be charged twice for the same crime. 
Retired Natrona County District Judge Dan Spangler, who was appointed to the case, accepted King's argument and dismissed the charge.  In an 18-page opinion written by Justice William Hill, the high court said King was not subjected to double jeopardy and that the state should have been allowed to present its case to a jury on the charge.  Young said the high court's ruling was not unexpected. "I felt strongly the law was in the state's favor and the judge had mistakenly dismissed the charge," he said.

Young had filed a bill of exceptions with the district court to get the Supreme Court to review Spangler's ruling. Such a review usually results in the establishment of case law to guide other cases. Young, however, said the language of the high court's decision could open the door to prosecute King on the dismissed count.  King's attorney, David Hooper, could not be reached for comment.

The felony charge of unlawfully obtaining cocaine carries a five-year maximum sentence. The misdemeanor count of using cocaine is punishable by up to a year in jail. On June 21, 2001, Spangler sentenced King to one to three years in prison, with all time suspended in favor of three years of probation.  Spangler chose not to fine King but ordered the former sheriff to enroll in a substance abuse treatment program.