Pubdate: Fri, 04 Jan 2002
Source: Mobile Register (AL)
Copyright: 2002 Mobile Register.
Contact:  http://www.al.com/mobile/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/269
Author: Joe Danborn, Staff Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)

FORMER PRICHARD COPS EXPECTED TO PLEAD GUILTY TODAY

At Least Four Of Six Officers Charged In Corruption Case Reportedly Work 
Out Deals With Prosecutors

At least four former Prichard police officers are set to plead guilty in 
federal court in Mobile this morning to corruption charges levied against 
them last year.

A lawyer for one of their former partners, meanwhile, said his client has 
until 9 a.m. today to decide whether to join them in pleading guilty or to 
again face racketeering allegations at trial. A lawyer for a sixth man 
accused in the case declined to comment about her client's status.

Jurors in a trial for all six men deadlocked in October, forcing a mistrial 
after three days of deliberations and two weeks of testimony.

Lawyers for the four slated to plea -- former Lt. James Stallworth Jr., 
former Sgt. John Stuckey and former detectives Derek Gillis and Nathan 
McDuffie -- worked furiously to broker deals with prosecutors Thursday. The 
lawyers dash ed between side rooms, courtrooms and hallways of the federal 
courthouse on St. Joseph Street to find their clients and relay 
prosecutors' proposed terms.

Several dozen southwest Alabama residents who were called as potential 
jurors waited in a courtroom and a jury lounge for much of the morning 
before Chief U.S. District Judge Charles Butler Jr. sent them to lunch; he 
discharged them at 1 p.m.

Some of the defendants took time to talk to their family members about the 
possibility of a guilty plea. Shortly before noon, a woman who appeared to 
be an older relative of McDuffie dabbed at the corners of her eyes as she 
stood with him and his lawyer.

FBI agents arrested the six men -- the four scheduled to plead, as well as 
former detectives Anthony Diaz and Frederick Pippins -- in August after an 
18-month probe. A federal grand jury accused the men of repeatedly taking 
cash from drug suspects in exchange for letting them go.

Authorities also accused Stallworth, the highest-ranking of the six, of 
taking at least $60,000 in seized cash from the department's evidence 
vault, which was in his office.

Stuckey, who also served on the Drug Enforcement Administration's local 
task force, was accused of taking seized crack cocaine and smoking it with 
prostitutes in exchange for sex. Prosecutors introduced evidence at the 
previous trial that he tested positive for cocaine around the time his DEA 
supervisors dismissed him, and shortly before he resigned from the Prichard 
force.

If convicted at trial of the most serious allegations, the defendants would 
face prison sentences ranging from slightly more than five years to not 
quite 20 years. The deals reached this week reportedly could range from 
home confinement to split sentences -- periods of home confinement 
typically coupled with equal amounts of jail time -- to multiple-year 
prison terms.

Lawyers on both sides of the case declined to comment Thursday, citing 
strict instructions from Butler. They were still hammering out the 
specifics of the plea agreements late Thursday.

Diaz and Pippins were rescheduled for trial late this month before Butler. 
Prosecutors reportedly offered both men deals similar to those given the 
other defendants. Pippins' lawyer, Willie Huntley, would not discuss 
details of the proposed agreement but said he understood it would be good 
until 9 a.m., when the others are scheduled to enter their pleas.

"My client said he didn't do anything wrong, didn't take any money, didn't 
extort any money, didn't try to bribe anybody," Huntley said, explaining 
Pippins' decision to once more risk conviction at trial. "All he did was 
try to be a good police officer."

Huntley said he expects the defendants who plead guilty will testify 
against his client. "That's going to be an integral part of any agreement 
they reach with the government," he said.

Pippins would face a prison term ranging from about seven years to nine 
years if a jury convicts him of the most serious counts, Huntley said.

All six were to have gone on trial Jan. 22 before District Judge Roger 
Vinson, the ranking federal jurist in Pensacola. Vinson had agreed to come 
to Mobile to try the case in order to lighten the burden on Butler, the 
only full-time federal district judge in the Southern District of Alabama. 
The trial likely would have taken at least two weeks.

Butler said a trial for just Diaz and Pippins likely would last only a few 
days.
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