Pubdate: Sun, 01 Aug 2004
Source: Allen American, The (TX)
Copyright: The Allen American 2004
Contact:  http://www.allenamerican.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3009
Author:  Mike Raye

EX-FRISCO COP LIED ABOUT DRUG RAID

A Collin County District court jury found a former Frisco Police Department 
narcotics detective guilty of one felony count of falsely reporting details 
about a drug bust in central Frisco in July 2003.

Jonathan Cain, 32, a 10-year police veteran, had worked for the Frisco PD 
from March 2001 until he was fired on July 31, 2003 when the Frisco Police 
Department's Criminal Investigations Division presented the criminal cases 
against him before the Collin County Grand Jury.

He was sentenced to six months in prison -- the minimum prison time for the 
state jail felony. His attorney, John Heath of Nacogdoches, said he would 
appeal the conviction this week and try to get Cain released on bond. Cain 
faced five years of prison time on the two counts. According to a source in 
the Collin County District Attorney's Office, no record of an appeal was 
seen as of yesterday.

Cain was charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence - a 
third-degree felony, and tampering with governmental records - a 
second-degree felony. The indictments were the result of a two-week 
investigation conducted by the Frisco Police Department, Texas Rangers and 
the Collin County District Attorney's Office.

The jury, after six hours of deliberation to break a deadlock, acquitted 
Cain on the third-degree felony count of evidence tampering but found him 
guilty of lying about where he said a seven-gram bag of methamphetamine was 
found in a search of a residence during a drug bust in the 8000 block of 
Edgewater Drive.

Prosecutors told the jury that Cain had seriously damaged the integrity and 
reputation of department by his misconduct on what otherwise was a 
legitimate drug bust. Assistant District Attorney Jeff Bray said Cain 
"single-handedly trashed the Frisco Police Department's reputation," 
according to accounts of court testimony.

According to court testimony by a former Frisco police colleague, Officer 
Jim Baggett, Cain took the methamphetamine -- found inside a safe in the 
house - and said it was found in a suspect's car parked out front. Baggett 
testified that Cain said he was going to plant drugs inside the car.

Prosecutors said the false claim was an excuse to seize the suspect's car, 
a Volkswagen Jetta, registered to suspect Lucas R. Daly, who along with 
another man, Michael A. Nguyen, was charged with selling drugs from the 
residence.

Daly and Nguyen face three first-degree felony drug counts and a fourth 
felony charge of money laundering, according to the Collin County District 
Attorney's Office.

According to court testimony in the weeklong trial, the two suspects are 
also under federal investigation of child pornography.

The trial, held in the 296th District Court in McKinney under the gavel of 
Judge Betty Caton, began June 21 after being rescheduled from two other 
dates this year.

The prosecution was conducted by the Criminal Section of the Special Crimes 
Division of the District Attorney's Office. The division, the D.A.'s office 
said, was created to assume responsibility for a broad spectrum of "white 
collar" criminal investigations and prosecutions, to provide support for 
atypical criminal investigations and prosecutions - including Public 
Integrity cases - and to offer assistance to law enforcement agencies with 
the preparation and execution of search warrants.
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