Detective Bobby Garrett was as crooked as they come, and now he’s getting his. This corrupt police officer put one of my clients in jail for 2 months and almost sent him to prison for 11 years - luckily, though, it only took our jury 25 minutes to find my guy NOT GUILTY.
The St. Louis American reports:
On Friday (August 28), former St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department detective Bobby Garrett plead guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud, making false statements and theft of government funds, according to Acting United States Attorney Michael W. Reap.
Though Reap described it as an “isolated incident,” the investigation revealed several City undercover detectives under the leadership of then Police Chief Mokwa committing crimes together on multiple occasions while in the line of duty.
Federal investigators describe a network of on-duty police officers stealing money from purported drug dealers and lying in official documents to conceal their crimes.
Federal agents also described false arrests made as part of the cover-up and obstruction of justice when their crimes were investigated.
Garrett, Leo Liston and Vincent Carr were police detectives employed by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, assigned to the Crime Suppression Unit.
Their duties included investigations involving auto theft, burglary, illegal narcotics sales and firearms offenses and were usually carried out while working in plain clothes and unmarked cars.
According to statements made in court by Assistant United States Attorney Hal Goldsmith at the time of the guilty plea, Garrett aided and abetted other officers acting with him in stealing money from a purported drug courier they stopped on September 18, 2007, and failed to properly report the stop and seizure in order to conceal their actions.
Further, Goldsmith said, in a June 6, 2008 drug raid, Garrett stole money, lied on police reports about the drug raid, and took other actions to conceal the theft, including falsely arresting and charging an individual relative to the drug raid.
Garrett later lied to a representative of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI agents investigating the incident in order to conceal his criminal conduct, Goldsmith said.
In an unrelated June 11, 2008 drug raid, Garrett and other officers working with him seized approximately $12,000 in cash, but only reported approximately $4,000 of the seized cash to the police department. The remaining approximately $8,000 was misapplied by Garrett and the other officers, and a false police report was prepared in order to conceal their criminal conduct, Goldsmith said in connection to the guilty plea.
Garrett, 49, of St. Louis County, plead guilty to one felony count of embezzlement of government property, one felony count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one felony count of wire fraud, two felony counts of making false statements and one felony count of misapplication of government funds.
Read the whole story from the St. Louis American online: Former City detective pleads guilty to multiple crimes committed on duty
joe :: Aug.30.2009 ::
Missouri, St. Louis, Criminal Defense, Criminal Law ::
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