A police officer from Rick Perry's hometown of Haskell pleaded no contest two weeks ago "to fabricating physical evidence ... and was sentenced to seven years probation" for planting meth on a suspect at a traffic stop, the Abilene Reporter-News reported (Dec. 31). Now, another man has filed a civil-rights lawsuit claiming the same officer planted drugs on him, resulting in the loss of his job as a car salesman after his arrest and photo were published on the front page of the Haskell weekly paper. The officer told a judge he had supporting information from an unnamed confidential informant in order to obtain a search warrant before allegedly planting the drugs, according to the suit.
The officer, William "Bill" Glass, sounds like your typical, Tom-Coleman style gypsy cop: "Apart from working at the Haskell Police Department, public records show Glass has been employed with at least seven law enforcement agencies" since 1995.
This could get (even more) ugly. Will more people come out of the woodwork to claim Officer Glass set them up? Once may be an outlier; twice (if allegations are true) would make a pattern. In the Dallas fake-drug cases, where informants helped police set up defendants using doctored pool chalk, investigators found two dozen defendants who'd been convicted and/or deported based on false allegations. How many more, one wonders, were victims of this fellow's frame-up jobs before he was finally caught?
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25 comments:
Seven years PROBATION???? His azz needs to be in TDC for the betrayal of (what should be) a sacred trust and for giving the rest of honest law-enforcement a bad name! What is the DA in this case thinking?
"What is the DA in this case thinking?"
That no other cases would show up? ;)
I wonder how many people have faced criminal charges based on dishonest cops like this. We know they exists, the question is just how many are there and how many people have they set up.
There was a post a while back about Judge Fine in Houston refusing a search warrant based only on a confidential informant. There were some commenters, probably prosecutors or law enforcement, that were extremely critical of Judge Fine. But, when you look at this story, its obvious that all judges need to be like Judge Fine and insist on real evidence to support probable cause before issuing search warrants. Let's hear from some of Fine's critics now.
Any idea where else he worked? I googled with no luck.
Scott aka Grits, thanks for all you do and happy new year to you and Sarge
leftrev
I find the no contest plea more bizarre than the 7 years probation even, and that's already pretty far out there. All I can come up with there is that the DA is worried about some issue in the case, that perhaps some key bit of evidence would be suppressed or the witness end up not willing to testify or something.
Actually, I find it surprising how often prosecutors allow cops a pass even after being caught. I can understand, sorta, the breaks before they are caught, and even not investigating trying to gather the needed evidence. But I would think once the evidence is there that nailing a dirty cop would play well with nearly every segment of the electorate (the one exception being perhaps other crooked cops, but like other criminals I pretty much discount them).
If he had planted drugs on me I'd skin him alive and post the video for all to see.
My response exactly. Seven years probation???? He deserves to spend at least as many hours/days/months in prison as his victims did. Better yet, double it, as we hold our law enforcement folks to a higher standard than the regular Joe.
This is why I have I always tell everyone what little respect I had for law enforcement is gone now!!!
I'm sure the "no contest" plea was for the bargain of no jail time--for a former police officer, a very valuable sentence. I would bet, however, that there is some condition in the probation such that no other crimes of the same kind be discovered during the term of the seven years of probation or else...
I'm agreeing with the other posters about probation. Real live people have spent time in our godawful prison system because of this guy. Probation? Not good enough! I am generally opposed to sending almost every offender to prison, since there are better alternatives. But here, lock him up!
Did the people he arrest get probation or prison time? Nothing like the criminal cops we have today. I think the police cheif, DA and judge should get prison time under the laws of parties.
It sounds very much like WISE County (Decatur). State trooper David Riggs and Deputy Payne(the K9 guy) are noted for planting drugs during a so-called routine traffic stops.
"public records show Glass has been employed with at least seven law enforcement agencies" since 1995"
Scott, which agencies are they?
Why is the cop not being sent to prison for possession of illegal drugs? He should get the sentence his intended victim would have had his scheme succeeded.
We've spent the last 30 two 40 years building a tough-on-crime culture in which cops and prosecutors and judges can get away with almost anything that plays well to the torch-and-pitchforks crowd.
Why are we still surprised when something like this happens?
Steve, I couldn't immediately tell what other agencies he'd worked for.
Interested people can make a request for information to TCLEOSE, which is part of the DPS, to get history on a peace officer. The TCLEOSE staff are excellent and usually respond swiftly to requests.
One of the "carrots" dangling in front of prosecutors during plea negotiations with accused cops is the fact that if he pleas, he never works as a cop again. If the case goes to jury and by some chance he beats the case, he can still hold his TCLEOSE license. Granted most serious and large scale LE agencies won't touch the guy, but there is a good chance that he might end up working at a smaller agency with little or no supervision. The type of agency that is ripe for his type of misbehavior
Just a thought.
He steals drugs from the evidence room. That should be one felony for the theft and one for the possession, enhanced because he was armed during both crimes, don't you think?
Obviously the evidence rooms needs a swift outside audit. Honest policemen would demand it!
But they let both those charges.....just walk.
Justice bureaucracy makes its own reputation.
The District Attorney for Haskell County did the right thing and disqualified himself from the case. The District Attorney from Wichita Falls was appointed Special Prosecutor but he resigned as DA before the case was resolved. A Lawyer from Jones County was then appointed Special Prosecutor. He is a former Assistant District Attorney and County Attorney.
When a sentence on a plea bargain case SEEMS unreasonably light you can bet good money the case has a major problem. This case had a major problem.
Reference: Wise County State Trooper David Riggs - Why is that so many of Trooper Riggs' high-speed chases ends in the death of the motorist being chased?
The erosion of the 4th Amendment continues down a very steep slope ..
The Fall of the Roman (I mean American Empire).
HaskELL Texas has NO JUSTICE SYSTEM. I call it "HaskELL LAW". "THEY" all work together (COPS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, JURORS & JUDGES). It still continues to this VERY DAY (2014). Something has to be done. Someone has to stop them. I do believe if you do the crime you should be punished "according to proper evidence " not on how "HaskELL LAW" thinks you should. There is a TRUE LEGAL JUSTICE SYSTEM that needs to be enforced in HaskELL Tx. WHO & WHEN will finally stop them from DESTROYING peoples lives.
Looking at finding out why a cop named Shane Vandiver left Haskell in 2013.
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