Pubdate: Sat, 07 Sep 2002
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2002 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact:  http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Steve Warmbir and Frank Main

COP CHARGED WITH THEFT OF $10,000

Decorated Chicago police officer Turan Beamon once drove the car of the 
rich, a pricey Dodge Viper, sporting the vanity plate JUSFAST, but he left 
a trail of thousands of dollars of debt in his wake.

And it was a desperation for cash, authorities charged Friday, that put 
Beamon on the fast track to crime.

Beamon, 31, was charged Friday with stealing $10,000. He thought he was 
stealing cash from the trunk of a drug dealer's Pontiac Grand Am, the feds 
allege. In fact, it was a government setup.

Beamon was being held Friday without bond, pending a court hearing Monday. 
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Netols said Beamon should remain behind bars 
until his trial because he's a danger to the community and could flee.

Beamon had only recently been assigned to a Drug Enforcement Administration 
task force when he tried to turn a government informant into a partner in 
crime, the feds allege.

The informant, though, secretly kept working for the DEA, recording a host 
of cell phone calls between him and Beamon.

Beamon had approached the informant last month, asking him if he knew how 
to make $70,000 fast.

The informant figured Beamon was suggesting they rip off a drug dealer.

Recorded phone calls show Beamon tried to gain the trust of the informant 
and persuade him that he wasn't trying to set him up. The informant played 
along, pretending to be worried.

Beamon assured him that he wouldn't be recording him. They could even meet 
and talk at a spa to show neither was wired.

Beamon told the man he wasn't interested in making a career out of ripping 
off drug dealers, authorities said.

"I don't need to making this no two, three or four times," he said in the 
secretly recorded call. "No man, I don't think my heart can take it."

On Wednesday, the informant told Beamon he had identified a drug dealer to 
rip off, one with $50,000 in cash.

The next day, with details from the informant, Beamon allegedly got into 
the trunk of what he believed was the drug dealer's car, parked at an 
Arby's in Romeoville, but found only $10,000 in a locked red metal tool box 
inside.

When Beamon was arrested Friday, a small amount of the cash was found on 
him, prosecutors allege.

Cash problems have plagued Beamon in recent years. He filed for bankruptcy 
in 1999, with debts of nearly $170,000, including more than $8,000 in 
credit card bills, records show. A father of three, Beamon previously has 
been hauled into court to make child-support payments.

A police source said the DEA conducts background checks on officers 
detailed to the task force, but did not know whether Beamon's bankruptcy 
would have been an issue.
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