Pubdate: Wed, 23 Aug 2006
Source: Hattiesburg American (MS)
Copyright: 2006 Hattiesburg American
Contact:  http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1646

DEPUTIES ACTIONS SCAR POLICE FORCE

Repugnant, repulsive and revolting are just a few choice words that 
describe the actions of three former Jones County sheriff's deputies 
accused of misdeeds while they were members of a task force 
established to ferret out illegal drug activity.

And those are gentler adjectives. What was once known as the 
Southeast Mississippi Drug Task Force can now go down as a public 
farce, all thanks to the actions of Roger Williams, 44; Chris Smith, 
34; and Randall Parker, 32. On Tuesday, the three former deputies 
waived their right to a grand jury investigation and agreed to plead 
guilty to charges ranging from planting evidence to assaulting 
defendants and embezzlement.

Tuesday, they made their pleas and were released on signature bonds.

They will be sentenced in January and could still face a Department 
of Audit investigation.

What the officers admitted to doing cannot be dismissed as just a few 
apples gone bad. Through their misconduct, they contaminate the work 
of all the other law enforcement officers who put their lives on the 
line every day trying to make Jones County a safer community.

As a result of their behavior, nearly three dozen drug cases 
involving at least 34 people had to be dismissed because deputies 
either planted evidence on suspects or tampered with evidence that 
had been gathered. The people the deputies are accused of setting up, 
for lack of a better phrase, are not angels, to say the least.

They were suspected in drug trafficking, and they could be implicated 
in subsequent cases.

Jones County Sheriff Larry Dykes believes some of them could be back 
in court before the end of the year.

That's some consolation but it doesn't begin to address the larger 
issue. Law enforcement officers, especially those who have been given 
a special assignment involving illicit drug dealings, hold a high 
place in the public spotlight. They are seen as the buffer, indeed 
the last line of defense, between the good and the bad, the 
law-abiding and the lawless, and right and wrong. When law 
enforcement officers cross that line, they not only violate the oath 
of office they were sworn to uphold but they betray the very trust of 
the public that depends on their integrity, honesty and their own 
sense of duty. J. Ronald Parrish, Jones County assistant district 
attorney, summed it up best when he explained the damage the 
officers' misconduct had caused. "We could not go forward with the 
cases because there were problems with evidence-tampering and 
planting evidence on some defendants," Parrish said. If the officers 
still don't get it after that, they should try to absorb this. The 
notion of "innocent until proven guilty" still matters.

We are still a nation of laws. What they did was unlawful, and rather 
frightening.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman