Seven Memphis Cops Robbed Drug Dealers of Cash & Drugs -- and Sold the Drugs

by Deb Cupples |   Apparently, corruption festers at every level.  The Justice Department reports (paragraph breaks added):

"The evidence at trial showed that from November 2003 through April 2006, [Arthur] Sease conspired with other Memphis police officers to use their authority as law enforcement officers, including their service weapons, to rob suspected drug dealers of cash, cocaine and marijuana.

"Sease and his co-conspirators would then resell the stolen drugs for their own profit. The government introduced proof of 16 separate robberies, as well as one attempted robbery. In each robbery, Sease or another uniformed Memphis police officer, would pull over a car containing suspected drug dealers and steal whatever drugs and cash that they found."

"According to evidence presented at trial, Sease conspired with other Memphis drug dealers to arrange drug deals so that he could rob the other dealers when they arrived. On one occasion, evidence showed that Sease had a co-conspirator resell cocaine that Sease had stolen from one drug dealer to another drug dealer. Sease then pulled the buyer’s car over, stole the cocaine again and resold it. Sease and his co-conspirators kidnapped several drug dealers in an effort to get them to set up additional drug deals for Sease to rob.

"Sease was a Memphis police officer from 2001 through 2005. He was discharged in 2005 for misconduct relating to one of the robberies. After he was fired, one of Sease’s co-conspirators, Andrew Hunt, became a Memphis reserve police officer and the two continued to rob drug dealers while pretending to be police officers, according to evidence presented at trial.

"Five other individuals have already pleaded guilty in this case. Hunt pleaded guilty in September 2006 to a federal civil rights conspiracy, robbery affecting interstate commerce and drug distribution, and was sentenced in December 2006 to 19 years in prison. Former Memphis police officers Antoine Owens, Harold McCall and Alexander Johnson pleaded guilty to civil rights conspiracy charges and are currently awaiting sentencing. Laterrica Woods, a civilian who helped Sease and Hunt with one of their robberies, also pleaded guilty to a civil rights conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2009."

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