Pubdate: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 Source: Virginian-Pilot (VA) Copyright: 2001, The Virginian-Pilot Contact: http://www.pilotonline.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/483 Author: John Hopkins, The Virginian-Pilot EX-POLICEMAN FACES LIFE IN PRISON FOR HIS CRIMES NORFOLK -- A 46-year-old Chesapeake man faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced in December for trafficking in cocaine, witness tampering, retaliation against an informant and firearms violations. Douglas Emanuel Foreman, a Portsmouth police officer in the 1980s, was found guilty last month by a jury in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. He was convicted of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon; cocaine trafficking; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; witness tampering and retaliation against a witness. He also was convicted of possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor upgraded to a felony because of prior drug convictions. Foreman could be sent to prison for more than 100 years when sentenced Dec. 12. He was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James A. Metcalfe under "Project Exile," a multi-agency joint federal and state task force targeting armed criminals. Foreman was arrested Feb. 9 after police seized cocaine -- some of it packaged -- from his Chesapeake home. Police also found two loaded semiautomatic firearms with two high-capacity ammunition magazines, according to evidence presented during his four-day trial. Chesapeake narcotics detectives arrested Foreman on state charges, but his case was referred to federal authorities for prosecution. During a federal grand jury investigation, Foreman was released April 9 on bond by the Chesapeake court. A month later, he assaulted a government witness with a ratchet wrench, said Gregg Evans, a task-force agent assigned to Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms from the Chesapeake Police Department. The witness was walking near Belmont Avenue in Portsmouth when Foreman discovered and attacked him with the tool, Evans said. The witness suffered deep wounds to the head. "He was covered in blood and on the ground and couldn't move," Evans said. Several citizens scared Foreman off, but the victim needed about 30 staples to close head wounds and another 20 stitches, police said. The witness was treated at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and was able to testify last month in federal court. Foreman was a sworn Portsmouth Police Department patrol officer from July 11, 1983, to April 27, 1984, working evening and night shifts, according to a department response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Portsmouth police declined to say why Foreman's employment ended, but court records show Foreman soon began operating on the other side of the law. In December 1985, he was arrested for trafficking in drugs, allegedly caught with cocaine and 136 capsules of heroin in the 1200 block of Godfrey Avenue in Norfolk. He also was charged with receiving a stolen gun. He pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking, received 15 years in prison and was fined $1,000 and $134 in court costs. A Norfolk judge suspended all of Foreman's prison time and placed him on 15 years of probation. He violated probation, court records show. In 1993, Foreman was sentenced to 12 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to heroin possession in state court in Norfolk. Foreman's sentence was again suspended, and he was placed on two years of unsupervised probation. Foreman's latest case was investigated by Chesapeake police, Evans and federal ATF agents. Since its inception locally, Project Exile has been responsible for more than 325 convictions, with an average prison sentence of more than nine years. More than 700 illegal firearms have been seized. Reach John Hopkins at 446-2793 or --- MAP posted-by: Jackl